Ethnic Fault Lines and the Case for The Creation of New Provinces in Pakistan: An Appraisal

Abstract

This article seeks to analyze the discourse around the creation of new provinces in Pakistan. The demand for carving out new federating units is a popular and long-standing proposal in some areas of the country with a long history of ethnic sub-nationalism fuelled by the real and imagined sense of political alienation and economic deprivation. This demand has been raised from time to time based on the distribution of national resources, and on ethnic grounds, and sometimes on the basis of socio-economic backwardness of the relevant areas. The demand for a 'Saraiki Province', 'Bahawalpur Province', 'Hazara Province are some major cases. This case study will focus on the different factors, including, most importantly, the constitutional setup and role of different political parties of Pakistan in the making of new provinces. The Following three basic questions are the major concerns of the rigorous academic endeavour taken up in the paper. First, what has been the basis of demands for the creation of new provinces in Pakistan? Second, what are the main hurdles in making new provinces in Pakistan and what urged the re-demarcation of state in Pakistan? Third, what has been the stance of various political Parties about the creation of new provinces in Pakistan?