Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has backed the creation of new provinces in Pakistan, saying the country could have as many as 12 administrative units if the exercise is driven by the needs of governance rather than by language, ethnicity or politics.
Speaking to Geo News in Sialkot on Sunday, Mr Asif said the proposal to create new provinces had been under discussion for the past two months, with views emerging from across the country. He argued that the existing concentration of authority in provincial capitals was preventing government services and resources from reaching people at the local level.
“If there is a proposal for 12 provinces, then make it 12, but they should not be created on the basis of language, ethnicity or political interests,” the minister said, in remarks also carried by Dawn, The News and The Express Tribune on Monday.
Mr Asif, who has previously voiced support for the idea, said the suggestion was first put forward by his cabinet colleague, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi. He maintained that Pakistan's growing population required a more effective system of governance so that public services could be delivered where people actually live.
His remarks come amid reports that a plan to reorganise the country into 12 provinces is under consideration, with a nationwide referendum envisaged ahead of a possible 28th Constitutional Amendment. According to a report in The News, the proposed arrangement could see Punjab divided into four provinces, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan into three each, and Sindh into two.
Sources familiar with the proposal have indicated that the amendment could be taken up during the first half of 2027, with preparatory steps potentially beginning in the first quarter of the year. For now, however, the proposal remains at the discussion stage: no final decision has been taken on provincial boundaries, administrative structures or the constitutional process, and no draft law has been tabled.
Any redrawing of the map would face steep constitutional hurdles. Under Article 239(4) of the Constitution, changing a province's boundaries requires approval by two-thirds of the affected provincial assembly as well as two-thirds majorities in both houses of Parliament, and a referendum can follow only after those parliamentary steps have been completed.
The debate has drawn support from other quarters as well. MQM-P convener and federal minister Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui has renewed his party's demand for new administrative units, calling for an end to what he described as the deprivation of urban Sindh.
Resistance is also expected to be strong. Reports note organised opposition, particularly from Sindh's assembly and the PPP, alongside warnings about the large recurring costs of new assemblies, secretariats and administrative machinery for each additional province.
Calls for new provinces are not new in Pakistan, where demands for units such as South Punjab and Hazara have surfaced repeatedly over the years without reaching the constitutional threshold. What has changed this time is the scale of the reported plan and the fact that senior federal ministers are now openly discussing it.
Whether the idea advances beyond discussion will become clearer in the coming months. If preparatory work begins in early 2027 as reported, the debate is likely to intensify in the provincial assemblies and in Parliament, where the two-thirds majorities required for any amendment would test the government's political arithmetic.
For now, the minister's intervention has put the provinces question back at the centre of national politics. Supporters present it as a question of better administration and fairer access to services; critics will ask whether redrawing boundaries addresses the deeper problems of governance, or simply creates new ones.
