By Augustine Nasim Gill

The debate over new provinces or smaller administrative units in Pakistan should not be reduced to maps, language, identity, or political representation. The central question should be whether new administrative units will improve governance, bring public services closer to citizens, strengthen revenue collection, reinforce the rule of law, and restore public confidence in the state.

Many countries have improved administrative performance by transferring authority from the center to states, regions, districts, and local governments. Yet these experiences have not all been equally successful. Where political authority was matched by adequate financing, competent administration, credible elections, the rule of law, and strong oversight, results generally improved. Where governments merely created new boundaries, assemblies, and ministries while corruption, patronage, and weak institutions remained unchanged, costs increased without transforming citizens’ lives.

A Basic Distinction Must Come First

Creating new provinces and genuinely devolving power are not the same thing. Successful decentralization has at least four dimensions:

Four Essential Pillars

• Political authority: Local and regional governments must be created through regular, free, and fair elections.
• Administrative authority: They must have genuine authority to manage departments, appoint qualified personnel, and hold officials accountable for performance.
• Fiscal authority: Their responsibilities must be matched by revenue powers, a predictable share of national taxes, grants, and budgets.
• Legal and institutional authority: Their powers must be protected by the Constitution or strong legislation so that federal or provincial governments cannot abolish them at will.

Why Smaller Administrative Units Can Succeed

Smaller, empowered units bring government closer to citizens. Residents of remote districts are less likely to travel hundreds of kilometers to a provincial capital for matters involving land, education, health, policing, courts, or development projects.

Regional governments also understand local conditions more clearly. The coastal areas of Balochistan, the agricultural districts of southern Punjab, a major metropolis such as Karachi, and the mountainous or tribal areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa do not face identical challenges. A single policy designed in one provincial capital is often unable to respond effectively to such diversity.

Smaller units can also increase political accountability. Citizens can more clearly observe the performance of their chief minister, ministers, mayors, district leaders, and civil administration. This benefit, however, appears only where elections are credible, information is open, and oversight institutions are independent.

1. Germany: Shared Powers, Shared Taxes, and Fiscal Equalization

Germany is a federal country composed of sixteen states, known as Länder. Each state has its own constitution, parliament, and government, and enjoys substantial autonomy over its internal organization.

The federal government is responsible for national defense, foreign policy, currency, and broad national legislation. The states play central roles in education, policing, culture, public administration, and the implementation of many laws. Municipal governments provide water, sanitation, local transport, urban planning, and many daily services.

Major taxes are not retained exclusively by the federal government. Personal income tax, corporate income tax, and value-added tax are shared among the federal government, the states, and, in some cases, municipalities according to established rules. A fiscal equalization system then narrows the gap between wealthier states and those with weaker revenue capacity.

Germany’s success is not simply the result of having sixteen states. It rests on clearly defined responsibilities, a strong tax administration, judicial oversight, a professional civil service, and a predictable equalization system.

Lesson for Pakistan: Before new provinces are created, the country must decide how income tax, sales tax, customs duties, natural-resource revenue, property taxes, and other revenues will be divided. A permanent, transparent, and publicly understood formula is essential.

2. Spain: Regional Autonomy, Public Services, and Different Fiscal Models

Spain is composed of seventeen autonomous communities. These regional governments exercise wide authority over health, education, social services, and regional development.

Most regions receive a share of national taxes, limited authority over certain taxes, and equalization grants. The Basque Country and Navarre have broader tax-collection powers: they collect most taxes within their territories and then transfer an agreed contribution to the central government for national services.

Regional government strengthened education, health services, and local identity, but Spain has also faced regional debt, fiscal imbalances, and separatist political movements. The lesson is that autonomy is not only a financial issue; national identity, constitutional boundaries, and commitment to the shared state also matter.

Lesson for Pakistan: New units should not be designed solely around language. Administrative efficiency, population, economic viability, public consent, and national cohesion must all be considered.

3. Poland: Phased Reform, a Three-Tier System, and Local Development

Poland did not devolve authority in a single step after the end of communist rule. Municipal self-government was restored in 1990, and a three-tier system was established in 1998-99: the municipality (Gmina), the county or district (Powiat), and the region (Voivodeship).

Municipalities became responsible for water, sanitation, local roads, primary education, and local development. Districts managed services that were too large for one municipality but too limited for an entire region. Regional governments took responsibility for economic development, regional planning, and the management of European development funds.

The reform succeeded because it was phased, local institutions were prepared, elected representatives were trained, professional administrations were developed, budgets were transferred, and responsibilities were defined.

The continuing challenge is that not every municipality or district has equal administrative capacity. Some smaller units remain weak in planning, data, financial management, and specialist staffing.

Lesson for Pakistan: Rather than creating many provinces overnight, Pakistan should begin with administrative pilots, stronger districts, digital systems, training, and independent audit in selected areas.

4. France: Gradual Decentralization from a Centralized State

France was historically a highly centralized state, but beginning in the 1980s it gradually transferred authority from the central government to regions, departments, and communes.

Regional governments manage economic development, transport, and some education and training functions. Departments play major roles in social welfare, certain roads, and local services, while communes provide day-to-day municipal services.

Small municipalities often cooperate through joint institutions to manage water, waste, transport, and territorial planning.

France’s challenge has been that responsibilities across different layers sometimes overlap or remain unclear, increasing administrative complexity and costs.

Lesson for Pakistan: The responsibilities of every level of government must be defined in law so that the federation, provinces, districts, and municipalities are not all nominally responsible for the same service.

5. India: New States, Constitutional Revenue Sharing, and Mixed Results

India has repeatedly altered state boundaries and created new states since independence. Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, and Telangana were established in response to regional, administrative, and economic demands.

An independent Finance Commission periodically recommends the share of divisible national taxes to be transferred from the Union to the states and the formula for distributing those resources among states. Population, income disparities, area, forests, tax effort, and other needs are considered.

Some new states achieved better administrative attention, infrastructure, and economic growth. In others, corruption, political instability, capture of mineral resources, weak institutions, and social inequality persisted.

The central lesson is that a smaller province does not automatically eliminate corruption; it may simply relocate corruption to a lower level.

Lesson for Pakistan: Before new provinces are created, public-service commissions, police, accountability systems, auditors, courts, elections, and public procurement must be protected from political interference.

Conditions That Make Decentralization Successful

1. Confront Corruption First

In Pakistan’s context, this is the most important condition. If new units are handed to the same corrupt political, administrative, and commercial networks, new governments will become new sources of patronage rather than institutions of public service.

Anti-corruption reform must not become political revenge. It requires independent accountability bodies, open contracting, digital payments, declarations of assets and conflicts of interest, an independent auditor general, access to information, prompt but fair judicial proceedings, and comprehensive e-procurement.

2. Free and Fair Elections

Governments in new administrative units will be legitimate only if elections are free, transparent, and credible. Constituency boundaries, candidate eligibility, voting, counting, results, and government formation must all be open to verification.

Manufactured or predetermined referendums will not create legitimacy. Public consultation must be genuine, free, informed, and independently verifiable.

3. Strict Merit and Competent Appointments

New provinces will require thousands of civil servants, police officers, teachers, doctors, engineers, financial experts, and administrators. These appointments must not be based on clan, family, marriage or personal relationships, religious affiliation, political loyalty, or civilian or military patronage.

Independent provincial public-service commissions, open examinations, standardized interviews, published merit lists, background checks, and a right of judicial appeal will be essential.

4. Resources Must Follow Responsibilities

If a district or province is responsible for schools, hospitals, and policing but lacks the money to operate them, decentralization will fail. Every transferred responsibility must be matched by adequate, secure, and predictable financial resources.

5. Local Revenues

Every new unit should have some own-source revenues, such as property tax, an effective agricultural income tax, motor-vehicle tax, local service fees, building permits and development charges, and selected business or tourism levies.

Tax rates, collection procedures, exemptions, audit, and appeal mechanisms must be transparent and consistent.

6. A Predictable Share of National Taxes

A share of personal income tax, corporate tax, general sales tax, customs duties, and natural-resource revenue should be transferred to provinces through a predictable formula.

The formula should consider not only population, but also poverty, area, underdevelopment, tax effort, health and education needs, environmental responsibilities, and border and security costs.

7. Fiscal Equalization

Large industrial and commercial centers will naturally collect more revenue, while remote, mountainous, or underdeveloped regions may have weaker tax capacity. A fiscal equalization system is therefore necessary to ensure that every Pakistani receives a minimum standard of education, health, policing, water, and infrastructure.

8. Limits on Borrowing

New provincial governments should not have unlimited borrowing authority. Each province should be subject to a debt ceiling, a fiscal-responsibility law, annual independent audits, deficit limits, and full disclosure of the liabilities of provincial public enterprises.

9. Education, Technology, and Training

Constructing new buildings is easy; building a competent administration is difficult. Pakistan must prepare public-administration academies, digital land records, integrated tax systems, e-procurement, police data systems, school and health dashboards, and continuous professional training before large-scale restructuring.

10. An Independent Justice System and the Rule of Law

New provinces will succeed only where courts are independent, police are professional, prosecutors are effective, and the law applies equally. If powerful landlords, business interests, politicians, bureaucrats, or institutions remain above the law, administrative restructuring will not benefit ordinary citizens.

A Proposed Roadmap for Pakistan

Phase One: Build Trust

The government should first reduce its own privileges, begin merit-based appointments, take impartial action against corruption and smuggling, and demonstrate initial reforms in policing and justice.

Phase Two: Establish an Independent National Commission

Pakistan should create an independent National Commission on Administrative and Fiscal Reform, including constitutional experts, economists, former civil servants, tax specialists, universities, the business community, women, young people, minorities, and representatives of every region.

Phase Three: Conduct Open Public Consultation

Every proposed new unit should hold public hearings, commission expert reports, invite digital submissions, obtain district-level resolutions, and conduct independent surveys. All evidence should be publicly available.

Phase Four: Publish a Fiscal Viability Assessment

Each proposal should disclose expected own-source revenue, federal transfers, administrative costs, staffing requirements, the cost of a capital and infrastructure, spending on education, health, and policing, and at least a ten-year financial plan.

Phase Five: Implement Gradually

Rather than creating many units simultaneously, reform could begin in two or three areas in phases, provided that constitutional, political, and public agreement exists.

Phase Six: Require Independent Evaluation

After five years, an independent review should measure education, health, revenue collection, policing, employment, corruption, local investment, citizen satisfaction, and fiscal discipline.

Final Word

International experience does not prove that smaller provinces always succeed. It shows that government which is closer to the people, accountable, and fiscally empowered can produce better results.

Success requires much more than changing a map. Elections must be fair, appointments must be based on merit, the law must apply equally, taxation and spending must be transparent, the judiciary must be independent, local governments must be empowered, and corruption must have no safe haven.

New provinces could become a historic opportunity for Pakistan, but only if they transfer power to citizens rather than merely create positions for a new group of rulers.

If the old system is simply placed inside new boundaries, Pakistan will gain new provinces but not new governance. The country must first clean the system, prove its intentions, prepare competent people, define fiscal rules, and involve the public. Administrative restructuring can then make Pakistan more organized, more just, and more resilient.

Selected References

• Council of Europe: European Charter of Local Self-Government and the principle of subsidiarity.
• German Federal Ministry of Finance: Federal fiscal relations, shared taxes, and fiscal equalization.
• Government of Spain, Ministry of Finance: Financing of the Autonomous Communities.
• OECD: Decentralisation, local governance, and Poland’s territorial reforms.
• OECD: Inter-municipal cooperation and local service delivery in France and other OECD countries.
• Finance Commission of India: Constitutional tax devolution and grants to states and local governments.
  

  About the Author

  Augustine Nasim Gill is a Pakistani-American author and an international development, governance, humanitarian, and disaster-management professional. Over more than three decades, he has served in leadership and management roles across Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and North America. He is the founder of the Hope Dialogue platform, which promotes civil, constructive, and evidence-based discussion on Pakistan and global affairs, and he writes regularly on governance, democracy, institutional reform, and national development in Pakistan.