A Promise Written but Not Kept: Smaller Units, Local Government and the Real Governance Question

Title: Smaller Provinces?
Writer: Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry
Published in: Dawn
Date of publication: 11 October 2026

A Promise Written but Not Kept: Smaller Units, Local Government and the Real Governance Question

Article 140A of Pakistan’s Constitution contains a clear instruction. Each province must establish a local government system and hand over political, administrative and financial authority to elected local representatives. The provision was added through the 18th Amendment in 2010. More than a decade and a half later, that promise remains largely unfulfilled, and it sits at the heart of a debate now gaining ground: should Pakistan create smaller provinces or administrative units?

The debate raises a deeper question. Is the demand for new units a vote of no confidence in the present system, or a search for better governance? The answer offered here is that both concerns are valid, and that size and local empowerment must be addressed together.

1. The State of the Citizen

Any discussion of administrative design must begin with what the current system delivers. The record is weak:

• Pakistan has a population of about 240 million.

• The UN Human Development Index (HDI), which ranks countries by health, education and living standards, places Pakistan in the low human development category.

• More than 88 million citizens have no formal education.

• The infant mortality rate is 48 deaths per 1,000 live births, against a global average of 18, meaning a baby born in Pakistan is more than two and a half times as likely to die in infancy.

• Half the population lacks internet access.

These figures show a state that has struggled to reach its citizens, especially those living far from provincial capitals. People in remote areas have seen little improvement in their quality of life, whatever the political arrangements at the top.

2. The Problem of Scale

Pakistan’s four provinces are very large by international standards. With 240 million people, they average about 60 million residents each, and Punjab alone is home to more than 120 million. Comparable democracies are organised very differently:

• Italy: 110 provinces or administrative units for 58.9 million people, a little over half a million each

• Japan: 47 prefectures, averaging about 2.6 million people each

• Netherlands: 12 provinces for about 18 million people

• Germany: 16 states for 83.5 million people

The contrast is stark. Italy has nearly as many people as an average Pakistani province, but divides them into more than a hundred units. When one provincial government is responsible for tens of millions of people spread over vast areas, distant districts inevitably receive less attention, fewer resources and weaker services.

3. Devolution That Stopped Halfway

The 18th Amendment transferred substantial powers and resources from the federal government to the provinces. The expectation was that provinces would pass these on further, to districts and tehsils (sub-district units). That second step did not happen in any lasting way. Power moved from Islamabad to provincial capitals and stopped there, so in practice the amendment’s spirit of bringing government closer to people has been defeated.

The signs are familiar:

• Local government elections are not held regularly, and elected local bodies are often dissolved or left to lapse.

• Provincial Finance Commissions, the bodies meant to divide provincial revenue fairly among districts, do not meet regularly.

• Functions that belong to elected local councils are handed to administrative authorities run by bureaucrats.

• Provinces favour large showcase projects in major cities over basic services in peripheral areas.

4. Elite Capture in Practice

Behind these patterns lies what is best described as elite capture: control of public resources by a narrow group for its own benefit. A clear example is the development funds allocated to members of the national and provincial assemblies. Legislators use these funds to build personal patronage networks, rewarding supporters with roads, schemes and jobs in their constituencies.

This blurs the line between the roles of different tiers of government. Legislators are elected to make laws and oversee the executive, not to act as local contractors. Meanwhile, local governments, which should handle such work, are kept weak. The result is not citizen-centred governance but a system organised around political loyalty.

5. The Case and the Caution

Those who defend the current setup argue that new provinces can only be created through the procedure laid down in the Constitution, which requires broad political agreement. That position is legitimate. Its weakness is that the same provinces insisting on constitutional procedure are themselves ignoring Article 140A on local government. Respect for the Constitution cannot be selective.

The way forward, therefore, is to create reasonably sized administrative units, preferably through a constitutional amendment based on consensus, and to pair them with empowered local governments. Each local government would be responsible for services that shape daily life:

• Police and public safety

• Water supply, sanitation and waste management

• Fire protection

• Education, parks and libraries

6. Reforms That Would Make the Difference

Several concrete steps follow:

• Parliament should study the issue in depth, covering its political, constitutional, economic and administrative dimensions.

• Article 140A should be amended to prohibit the arbitrary dissolution of local governments, require regular elections, guarantee fiscal devolution and standardise local government functions and tenure across provinces.

• Article 7, which defines “the State” in the Constitution, should explicitly recognise local governments as a separate tier, with a direct share in the divisible pool of federal taxes, the revenue shared between the federation and the provinces.

• Development funds for legislators should be reduced, while their powers to oversee development spending should be strengthened.

7. Size Is Not Enough, Power Is Not Enough

Smaller units alone would only multiply provincial capitals if they repeated the same habits of centralisation. Empowered local government alone would struggle inside provinces too large to manage well. Governance improves only when administrative units are of manageable size and elected local governments are an integral, protected part of the system. Until both conditions are met, the citizen in a remote district will remain as far from the state as before, whatever the map looks like.

Exam Essentials

1. Key Facts and Figures

• Population: about 240 million; Pakistan in the low category of the UN Human Development Index

• More than 88 million citizens without formal education

• Infant mortality: 48 per 1,000 live births against a global average of 18

• Half the population without internet access

• Italy: 110 units for 58.9 million; Japan: 47 prefectures averaging 2.6 million; Netherlands: 12 provinces for about 18 million; Germany: 16 states for 83.5 million

• Article 140A: provinces must establish empowered local governments

• Article 7: proposed to recognise local governments as a separate tier

• 18th Amendment (2010): devolved powers from the federation to the provinces

2. Key Terms

• Devolution: transfer of powers from a higher to a lower level of government

• Local government: elected bodies at district, tehsil and union level

• Article 140A: constitutional provision requiring provincial local government systems

• Provincial Finance Commission: body that divides provincial revenue among local governments

• Divisible pool: federal tax revenue shared between the federation and provinces

• Elite capture: control of public resources by a narrow group for private benefit

• Patronage politics: distributing state resources in return for political loyalty

• Human Development Index: UN measure combining health, education and income

3. Related Subjects

• Constitutional Law: 18th Amendment, Articles 7 and 140A

• Governance and Public Policy: decentralisation, local government, service delivery

• Pakistan Affairs: federalism, provincial relations, new provinces debate

• Comparative Politics: administrative structures in Italy, Japan, Germany and the Netherlands

• Political Science: elite capture, patronage, democratic accountability

4. Useful Arguments

• Devolution that stops at provincial capitals does not bring government closer to people.

• Very large provinces stretch administrative attention and neglect peripheral districts.

• Respect for the Constitution must include Article 140A, not only procedures that suit the powerful.

• Development funds for legislators blur the roles of lawmaking and local service delivery.

• Local governments need constitutional protection and a guaranteed fiscal share.

• Administrative size and local empowerment must be reformed together.

5. Probable Questions

1. Should Pakistan create new provinces or administrative units? Critically evaluate the arguments for and against.

2. “The 18th Amendment decentralised power to the provinces but not to the people.” Discuss with reference to Article 140A.

3. How does elite capture weaken local governance in Pakistan, and what constitutional reforms can address it?

6. One Quotable Line

“Power that travels from the federation only as far as the provincial capital has not reached the citizen.”

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