It’s a debate that’s flared up before, and gone nowhere before, more times than anyone can count. But when Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi stood up at the Pakistan Economic Summit 2026 in Islamabad and declared that the country’s governance system had “collapsed,” and that new provinces might actually be the fix, it didn’t just reopen an old can of worms. It got half of Islamabad’s political class talking within days. Some agreed almost instantly. Others pushed back hard. And true to form, nobody’s quite settled on what happens from here.
What Naqvi Actually Said
Speaking at the summit in late July, Naqvi didn’t really soften his words. He argued that Pakistan’s current governance model had effectively “collapsed” after decades of failing to deliver, and said decentralisation was essential to improve public services, ensure timely justice, and create real opportunities for a new generation of leaders. To his credit, he was careful to add some nuance, he acknowledged that not every part of the existing system was flawed, but said ordinary citizens were still struggling for basic services and timely justice, even with new courts having been set up. His actual solution, in his own words, was blunt: governance needs to be decentralised through new administrative units or provinces.
And he kept going. He warned that without drastic changes, the same problems would still be sitting on the table ten years from now, and said the whole financial model needs to move down to the grassroots. He pushed political parties to actually sit together, a day, a month, a year, whatever it takes, and settle the matter once and for all, warning that the country would stay stuck no matter how many seminars got held about it otherwise. He was also fairly specific about who should be in the room, saying the conversation needed to happen in parliament, among political parties, in universities and colleges, through the media, and with legal experts and civil society all weighing in, with both sides of the argument genuinely examined before anyone makes a final call.
How Big Could This Get?
Honestly, nobody’s agreed on numbers yet, and that uncertainty is part of what’s fuelling all the anxiety around this. Various reports and proposals floating around at the federal level suggest anywhere from 12 to 20 new units, and some go as far as 32 or 33, replacing the current four-province setup entirely. Maps showing over a dozen new administrative units have already started circulating online, which has given the whole debate a strange, very literal shape, even though, as one report pointed out, Pakistan’s constitution doesn’t actually have a clear process for creating new provinces at all. It only covers adjusting existing boundaries, so anything this big would need a major constitutional amendment first.
Who’s Backing the Idea
Support has come in fairly quickly from a few corners. Federal Health Minister Mustafa Kamal threw his weight behind the proposal, saying new administrative units could genuinely help with Karachi’s long-standing problems, and pointed out that Pakistan is geographically bigger than roughly 180 countries yet somehow operates with far fewer administrative divisions than that would suggest. MQM-P leaders Dr Farooq Sattar and Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui also backed the call, with Sattar pointing to Pakistan’s rapid population growth as the real justification. Former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi pushed for comprehensive reforms too, though he was quick to caution that new provinces alone wouldn’t magically fix governance.
Who’s Pushing Back
Not everyone’s on board, though, and the pushback has been just as loud. PPP has urged caution, with critics inside and around the party arguing that a government already facing questions about its own legitimacy probably shouldn’t be the one steering something this consequential, and that fixing Pakistan’s centralised revenue-sharing system matters a lot more than redrawing the map, since new provinces without independent income would just put more strain on the federation. PPP Secretary General Nayyar Bukhari, and separately ISPR Director General Lt Gen Sharif Chauhry, both stressed that any change like this has to follow proper constitutional procedure and genuinely reflect the will of the people, not just get announced from the top down. There’s a bit of irony here too, actually, it was the PPP itself that started a similar process years ago under the Gilani government, though it never really followed through.
One piece of commentary summed up the skepticism well: the fact that this proposal came from the Interior Minister, framed as a governance fix rather than something rooted in development or linguistic and ethnic justice, doesn’t automatically make it wrong, but it does mean it probably deserves more serious scrutiny than similar suggestions have gotten in the past.
What the Government Actually Thinks
Here’s the part that’s easy to miss, though Naqvi isn’t actually asking the government to just decide this on its own. He’s been fairly explicit that political parties need to come together and settle major national questions like this one collectively, and that any discussion has to involve real public participation and broader national consensus, not a decision handed down from the top. Whether Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s cabinet is genuinely behind turning this into a formal process, or whether Naqvi is simply floating a deliberately provocative idea to force a conversation the country’s been avoiding for years, is honestly still hard to say.
What Comes Next
For now, this is exactly what it’s always been in Pakistan, a conversation everybody seems willing to have, but nobody’s quite ready to actually formalise. Given the constitutional hurdles and the political disagreement already spilling out into the open, don’t expect new provinces on a map anytime soon. But say this much for Naqvi, he’s managed to drag a question the country has quietly dodged for decades right back into the spotlight.
References
- Dawn.com, “Naqvi urges ‘all political parties’ to settle issue of more provinces, says current ‘system’ has collapsed,” July 30, 2026
- The Express Tribune, “Governance system has collapsed: Naqvi,” July 30, 2026
- Business Recorder, “Naqvi advocates for creation of new provinces,” July 30, 2026
- Voicepk.net, “Political divide deepens as Federal Minister sparks debate again over creating new provinces,” August 22, 2026
