Parties favour stronger LGs over new provinces
Article 140-A reforms proposed
Several mainstream political parties have advocated for enhancing the local government system under the constitution rather than establishing new provinces. A day-long talk organized by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) highlighted that Pakistan is not resource-constrained but suffers from ineffective service delivery due to provincial power concentration.
While opposition parties like the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) were against new provinces, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) supported the idea. Many independent experts also favored granting local governments more administrative, political, and financial powers.
PTI Secretary General Salman Akram Raja suggested abolishing provincial tiers and retaining only two government levels - federal and local administrative units. Raja criticized Article 140-A, which governs local governments, for being vague and called for more constitutional protection for these entities. The PTI leader also opposed a national referendum on the creation of new provinces, stating that the Constitution already provides a mechanism for this purpose.
MNA Noor Alam Khan of JUI-F argued that creating more provinces would increase bureaucratic posts and complicate governance. Various anchors and experts echoed the need to bolster local governments and emphasized that the current system's failure stemmed from bureaucratic corruption and incompetence.
Written by urgent.news from The Express Tribune - Pakistan's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
