How many new provinces will be created in Pakistan?
Based on the information you provided, no final decision has been made on how many new provinces will be created in Pakistan.
An economic think tank, the Economic Policy and Business Development (EPBD), has proposed three different plans to restructure the country’s administrative units to better address economic issues.
The Proposed Scenarios 🧐
The think tank has presented three alternative options for creating smaller, more manageable administrative units:
- Scenario 1: Create 12 small provinces. Under this plan, each province would have a population of about 20 million people.
- Scenario 2: Create 15 to 20 small provinces. This would result in each province having a population between 12 and 16 million.
- Scenario 3: Create 38 federal divisions. In this model, each division would have an average population of 6.3 million.
Why is this being proposed?
The EPBD argues that Pakistan’s current structure, with four large provinces and an average provincial population of over 60 million, is a major cause of economic problems. Their report highlights several key issues:
- Uneven Resource Distribution: There is a large gap in the resources provided to different provinces. For example, Punjab receives Rs 5,355 billion.
- High Poverty Rates: The current average poverty rate across the provinces is 40%. The disparity is significant, with poverty at 30% in Punjab but 70% in Balochistan, 48% in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and 45% in Sindh.
- Economic Management: The think tank believes that smaller provinces or federal divisions would allow for better budget utilization, more targeted economic policies, improved employment opportunities, and a significant reduction in poverty.
