Former information minister Muhammad Ali Durrani has launched a movement for the restoration of Bahawalpur province and the creation of 11 other smaller administrative units across the country, calling the campaign a battle for prosperity.
Speaking at a news conference at the Bahawalpur Press Club on Monday, Durrani said the four-province system was a legacy of the colonial era and that new provinces should be created to improve governance and ensure a fair distribution of resources.
A campaign that will not stop
Durrani, a long-time supporter of the restoration of Bahawalpur province, said the campaign for new provinces and smaller administrative units would continue and could not be stopped. He also called for a new local government system across the country, saying Pakistan’s political structure should rest on newly created provinces and empowered local governments.
He said the creation of new provinces would ensure a more equitable distribution of national resources and improve basic services, including health care, education and jobs, for ordinary citizens. The existing administrative system had failed to meet public needs, he argued, a fact he said even government ministers acknowledged.
ARY News reported that Durrani termed the movement Marka-e-Khushali, a battle for prosperity, and said new provinces, specifically Bahawalpur, Hazara and South Punjab, would ultimately be created.
Dunya News reported that Durrani said resolutions supporting the creation of Bahawalpur and Hazara provinces had been unanimously approved and would remain valid regardless of whether an assembly was in place. He stressed that the movement for smaller provinces was not meant to divide Pakistan but to strengthen national unity, and said traditional political parties opposed new provinces despite what he described as public support for the idea.
Bahawalpur province: the resolutions he cited
Durrani reminded the ruling PML-N leadership that two separate resolutions had already been passed by the Punjab Assembly during its previous tenures, one seeking the restoration of Bahawalpur province and the other calling for the creation of south Punjab province. He said the resolutions were still part of the assembly’s official record and urged the PML-N leadership to honour its commitments.
He said the creation of new provinces would help devolve powers to lower administrative levels, which he called the essence of true democracy. He warned that political parties opposing new provinces risked losing public support, arguing that the demand reflected the aspirations of the people.
The demand has a long history. Bahawalpur was a princely state that was merged into the One Unit in 1955, with an understanding at the time that it would revert to its original status if the One Unit was dissolved. The province question has returned to public debate many times since, and the PML-N itself presented a constitutional amendment bill in the National Assembly on January 29, 2019, for the creation of Bahawalpur and south Punjab provinces.
Durrani has pressed the point before. In August, he claimed a constitutional amendment seeking the immediate restoration of Bahawalpur province and the creation of Hazara province would be tabled in parliament the following month. That amendment has not yet appeared, which is one reason Monday’s launch of a public movement matters: it shifts the campaign from closed-door promises to open pressure.
The counter-argument
Not everyone agrees that new provinces are the answer. In an editorial on Tuesday, Dawn argued that new provinces could wait and that empowering local governments should be the focus instead. The paper’s point was that the existing system fails not because provinces are too large but because power has never truly reached the district and town level.
That debate is now the central question in Durrani’s campaign. His answer is that smaller provinces and strong local governments go together, and that both are needed. His critics say the country should fix local government first, before redrawing the map.
The idea of more provinces has support beyond Bahawalpur. A 12-provinces plan was put to a referendum proposal earlier this month, showing that the debate has moved from party rooms into public discussion. Punjab has also begun reorganising its own administration, with school secretariats split across three regions, a smaller step in the same direction of devolving power.
For now, Durrani’s movement has no timetable and no draft law in parliament. Its test will be whether it can gather support beyond Bahawalpur, and whether the PML-N, which passed the resolutions he cites, is willing to act on them. The NA-77 by-election result showed the party still commands support in Punjab, but the province question will test how far that support extends to constitutional change.
Frequently asked questions
Who is Muhammad Ali Durrani?
He is a former federal information minister and a long-time campaigner for the restoration of Bahawalpur province and the creation of smaller provinces in Pakistan.
What did he announce on Monday?
At a news conference at the Bahawalpur Press Club, he launched a movement for the restoration of Bahawalpur province and the creation of 11 other smaller administrative units, calling it Marka-e-Khushali, a battle for prosperity.
What is his argument for new provinces?
He says the four-province system is a colonial legacy, that new provinces would improve governance and ensure fairer distribution of resources, and that power should be devolved closer to the people.
What resolutions did he cite?
He said the Punjab Assembly had passed two resolutions in earlier tenures, one for restoring Bahawalpur province and one for creating south Punjab province, and that both remain on the assembly’s official record.
What do critics of new provinces say?
Dawn’s editorial on Tuesday argued that new provinces can wait and that empowering local governments should come first, saying the real failure is that power has never reached the district level.
