Shamraz Khan

This is a good idea & credit should be given to Durrani for bring this up at national level.

Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan

Senator Durrani moves bill for creation of new provinces

* Former information minister says smaller, governable units will make administration easier, lead to rapid progress in under-developed areas

Staff Report

ISLAMABAD: Former information minister Muhammad Ali Durrani submitted a draft bill to the Senate secretariat on Thursday, seeking to amend the Constitution to facilitate the process of creating new provinces.

The former minister said, "My bill seeks to simplify the procedure of forming new provinces, in line with the aspirations of my countrymen.”

Rapid progress: “It is imperative to form new, more manageable provinces. This will not only make administration easier, but will speed up the progress of the under-developed areas in the country," he told reporters while addressing a press conference at Parliament House.

"This bill will allow Senate to pass a resolution for the formation of a new province and will only require a simple majority. Later, the National Assembly can also pass the bill with a simple majority," Durrani said.

He said according to the current Constitution, parliament and the provincial assemblies required a two-thirds majority to form new provinces. This bill would make matters much easier, the former minister added.

"India used to have just 16 provinces, but has now created 12 new ones for better administration," he remarked.

Historic injustice: To a question, Durrani said the restoration of Bahawalpur’s provincial status would correct the historic injustice done by the late dictator General Yahya Khan, who merged the province into Punjab, defying a commitment made by the Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah.

He said the denial of rights to the people of Bahawalpur had taken its toll on the security and solidarity of the federation. It is time, he said, for the state to redress the miseries of the poor.

Durrani said there was a strong sense of deprivation amongst the people of under-developed areas, especially in southern Punjab. The only solution to these problems was the creation of smaller, more governable units, he added.

"This bill would initiate the process of creating smaller administrative units. In the first phase, Bahawalpur's provincial status should be restored, and that should be followed by the formation of a new province that includes the Multan and Dera Ghazi Khan divisions,” the former minister said. He suggested forming a total of 16 new provinces.

Croquet

in itself i donot see any problem with number of provinces and how they are managed so long as the communities involved are consulted and considered. What i mean to say is that the creation or death of pronvince/provinces doesnt cause these communities unnecessary inconvineance or cause rift. we went through one unit and all that earlier on as well. Its all about management strategies. From the article you posted , durrani doesnt say much about what the differences would be in layman terms. So cant really assess the ramifications.

Pareshan0

No! we have well managed 4 provinces for 6 decades flat. New provinces will create more troubles within e.g corruption.

Shamraz Khan

^^^ I think Senator Durrani has valid point. More provinces means local would have more control of their own problems. The system that was set up by ZAB after 1971 has led to ethnic rivalries, regionalismm nationalism, and to undermine that, we need to have non-ethnic based provincial governance system. This should include more provincial autonomy as well.

DAWN.COM | Pakistan | Bill to help create new provinces submitted to Senate

Senate bill to help create new provinces submitted
By Iftikhar A. Khan
Thursday, 25 Jun, 2009 | 07:06 PM PST |

Senator Durrani introduced the legislation hoping that smaller sub-units will prove easier to

ISLAMABAD: A draft bill seeking to amend the Constitution to facilitate the process of creating new provinces with a simple majority of the parliament was submitted with the Senate secretariat on Thursday.



The bill which seeks to make the procedure of the formation of new provinces simple and reflective of the wishes of the people of the country for faster development of the country was submitted by former Federal Minister for Information, Senator Muhammad Ali Durrani.



‘It is imperative to form new Provinces of a manageable size. This will not only make the administration easy but the under-developed areas will be able to make rapid progress,’ Durrani said addressing a press conference here after submitting the bill.



He said he had introduced the bill as there is a very difficult and lengthy procedure to form a new province, whereas, as compared to the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the Constitution of other developed countries provides simple procedures for this purpose.



‘This bill would facilitate the process and by making this bill a part of the Constitution, the respective province or Senate could pass a resolution with a simple majority for creation of new province. Later, the Parliament would also need a simple majority to pass the bill,’ he added.



He said as per the Constitution, the parliament as well as the provincial assembly needs a two-thirds majority to create new province. However, this bill would facilitate this process.



‘India had 16 provinces but now it has created 12 new provinces for better management. This bill would empower Senate or the respective province to move a resolution for creation of new province and the parliament would also need a simple majority to pass the bill,’ he remarked.



Answering a question, Senator Durrani said the restoration of the provincial status of Bahawalpur would correct a historic wrongdoing by a dictator General Yahya Khan who had merged the Province into Punjab defying the commitment made by Mohammed Ali Jinnah.



He said the denial of rights to the people of Bahawalpur had badly affected the security and solidarity of the federation and time was ripe for the state to move for redressing the miseries of the poor and deprived.



Senator Durrani said there was sense of deprivation in the people living in the under-developed areas — especially in Southern Punjab and the only answer to the woes of the people was smaller units which could bring in better management and better delivery systems.



‘This bill would start a new process of creation of smaller provinces and administrative units. In first phase, Bahawalpur’s provincial status should be restored which should be followed by creating a new province comprising Multan and Dera Ghazi Khan Divisions. A total of 16 new provinces should be formed,’ he added.

Xenophanez

In principle it's a wise move, BUT there should be a complete package. Without a comprehensive and restructured local bodies system it will not deliver desired results.

DD

Important question is what do peopel want to achieve from creating new provinces. And keep in mind that this add more cost for running the state affairs, we already paying too much to lousy gov officials. Do you want to spend more on them?

The main reason people want creation of new province is their desire to divide punjab, whenever there is talk of new province, its for diving along ethnic lines.

SO

1- What will be costs of running new provincial governemnts.
2- If its done along ethnic, language basis, what will you do when demography changes? Change the province again?
3- Make a pakhtunkha 2 in Karachi and Quetta?

aasimtom

^^^ and they would definitely consider those things. It's a good move though if comes into practice, as e.g. the CM of Punjab, or NWFP would only work and emphasis in those areas where they are wining their seats in election. More provinces means more authority to the elected candidates and if they don't care for their people of the respected new provinces, then they are gone in next election. So competetion would rise and as a result a more developed Pakistan would be seen as a whole. Inshallah

Sapera

though the idea may have been floated with positive intension, yet, it is likely to further divide our nation.

INSTEAD ONE UNIT IDEA BASED ON ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS ONLY IS MORE LIKELY TO ERADICATE REGIONAL IDENTITIES WHICH HAVE ONLY DIVIDED A NATION BINDED BY RELIGION ONLY.

Captain FT

well yes from the administrative point of view it is a good decision but funds must be also allocated more than it is now in order to develop the under developed cities, otherwise it would not be a good decision

Khehkeshan

burqaposhx

Right now!

4 +1 provinces (Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan, Frontier) + A Kashmir

means:

4 assemblies, 4 governors, 4 CMs, Kashmirs (assembly etc.)

this equals 5 x 50 = 250 ministers, junior minsters, chamchas.

As per the proposed plan, we shall soon see

50 provinces, 50 assemblies, 50 governors, 50 CMs, 50x50 = 2500 ministers + chamchas.

At provincial level we have 250+ sources of political corruption.

Inshallallah soon we will have 3000+ sources of political corruption and

Guess what?

We will be just like Afghanis.


p.s. Aqalmand people want to learn from mistakes and AVOID them.

Afghanis and other tribals want to repeat the same mistakes over and over and over ..... until Qiyamat.

lapak

Punjab has huge population, I think only punjab should be divided into three privinces:
1- Bahawalpur
2 - Central Punjab
3- Potohar

marwati

NO DO NOT AGREE WITH IT

a new autonomus province namely pakhtunkhwa should be created including following areas

- whole of NWFP

-13 Pashtun districts of balochistan including Quetta

-attock and mianwali

firenze

at least 11 more provinces.. should be made !

burqaposhx

hahahha.

FATA/swat sanbhalla nahi ja-ay hai
per lalchi loag attock magtay hain,


hahaha.

Khehkeshan

I'm surprised you're not asking for karachi to be part of pushtunistan jr.

SindSagar

You Ones! are all wrong....................


Pakistan needs Basic Democracies at the Tehsil level..........all reporting directly to the Central Govt..................

No Governers of Provinces..................Dropping the Idea and excuse for ethnic boundaries................

this way the elected Officials will be responsible for their Tehsil or city district.........where the locals who elected them are aware of all their activities

burqaposhx

Provinces are like like running a company. If you run your company better, then your "share value" goes up and people want to put more money and their areas with you.

If MQM cannot run even one city like Karachi, you think people will trust them with even more area? Heck no!

Pakistani provinces are now fully identified with their ethnicity. And no ethnic group would like to lose their area.

Just read this thread, Pashtuns want MORE areas added to their province NOT LESS.

So if you being a smaller province, want your area to get bigger, but in the same breath you want a bigger province to become smaller, what would people call that stance?


Hypocracy! (at best).


p.s. I saw the suggestion of 11 provinces. So instead of 250+ lutairas we will have at least 600+ sources of political corruption.

How many of you even care that each new provincial government will ADD to the bureaucratic i.e. dead expense. Shouldn't we use that money to fun schools and hospitals?

firenze

^ blah blah blah..

as usual you are not making any sense at all, have a coffee

thank for contributing your worthless post !

burqaposhx

Bhai Fire aap to bilkul naraz ho ga-ay.

Aga 11 soobay banwaany ka dil karta hai to showq say banwa-ain.

Aap pay sadqay. 11 schorr kay aapy 1100 banwaa-ain. janaba e aali.

Hum kaon hotay hai swaal poochnay walay.