Shafaqna Pakistan: The federal government has announced that the National Assembly and Senate will debate the creation of new provinces in October.
Federal Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry told the media that neither the National Assembly nor the Senate would hold a session in September. Both houses are scheduled to meet in October, when the issue of new provinces will be taken up for discussion.
Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry said the matter was already being widely debated across the country, including in the media and among intellectuals and business community representatives. He said Parliament was the appropriate forum for a formal debate on the creation of new provinces.
He clarified that Islamabad is not going to be made a province, saying the federal capital is instead moving toward adopting a new governance model. He stressed that there is no proposal to turn Islamabad into a separate province.
Earlier, Federal Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal had also proposed dividing Pakistan’s four provinces into three parts each, resulting in a total of 15 provinces across the country.
Iqbal said the existing system was not delivering and called for the formation of a review committee to examine the proposal and initiate a national and political debate on the creation of new provinces.
He said political consensus was essential for the establishment of new provinces, adding that the debate had gained momentum following Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi’s remarks about the system’s failure.
Iqbal stressed that any decision on creating new provinces would require broad political agreement.
