ISLAMABAD (The Thursday Times) — Creating new provinces would add between Rs47 billion and Rs57 billion a year in recurring costs for two extra provinces, and up to Rs730 billion if 30 divisions became provinces, a private think tank has estimated, urging a full fiscal costing before any constitutional change.
The Policy Research Institute of Market Economy (PRIME) put the annual recurring cost of each new provincial government, covering a governor, chief minister, assembly, secretariat, high court and other core institutions, at Rs22.4 billion to Rs25.9 billion, Dawn reported. It advised strengthening local governments first if the aim was better public services.
“Any proposal for creating new provinces should include a formal fiscal costing exercise before constitutional or legislative changes are pursued,” the think tank said, so that the administrative benefits could be weighed against the extra burden.
Small units, big bills
Under the existing National Finance Commission formula, a South Punjab province would receive an illustrative Rs1 trillion a year and Bahawalpur Rs537 billion in a six-province model. In a 30-province model, 11 of the units would receive less than Rs150 billion a year, with Loralai at Rs46 billion and Zhob at Rs50 billion.
The core provincial structure would swallow about 49 per cent of Loralai’s allocation, 45 per cent of Zhob’s and 37 per cent of Rakhshan’s even under the low-cost estimate, PRIME said, and every proposed province with fewer than 1.2 million people would need more than a third of its NFC share just to run its government. Limited restructuring into a few large units would carry a much smaller burden.
The debate over new provinces has intensified in recent weeks, with PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari ruling out any division of Sindh. The Thursday Times has argued in an editorial that Pakistan needs more provinces, drawn for governance and backed by real devolution.
