Parliamentary Affairs Minister Tariq Fazal Chaudhry on Thursday said the government plans to conduct a parliamentary debate on the creation of new provinces in October, adding the National Assembly and Senate sessions are the appropriate forum for the discussion.
Speaking with media, he clarified that the discussion could not take this month, as there were no parliamentary sessions during the month. “The real place for the debate on new provinces is Parliament House,” he said.
The announcement comes amid growing political debate on Pakistan’s present provincial borders, with the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP)-led Sindh Assembly adopting a resolution against any potential “division” of the province. The key instigator of the call for new provinces is Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, who alleged in July that the country’s governance system had “collapsed.”
Earlier this month, he reiterated his desire for new provinces, or administrative units, stressing it should be in accordance with the public’s desires. His latest statements has sparked speculation over whether a national referendum would be held to secure public support for the initiative, though there is no formal acknowledgement of the same from the government.
To a question, Chaudhry also clarified that the government is not making Islamabad a new province, but is rather moving toward a new governance model. “There has been no talk of making Islamabad a separate province,” he maintained. Islamabad, he said, was the “collective area of the federation” where everyone had an equal share and represented the federation, adding it was not “technically possible to make Islamabad a separate province.”