APROPOS
the letter ‘Dismantled unity’ (May 15). The writer regrets that there are
attempts to create more provinces and that people should consider themselves
Pakistanis first. This is indeed laudable, but perhaps the writer is too young
to remember the days when the whole of present-day Pakistan was a single
province.
This
resulted in the people of the smaller provinces feeling alienated, just as the
people of Karachi today feel they are outsiders. The refusal of the Sindh
government to allow Karachiites to run their own affairs has ruined the
metropolis from which the provincial government gets 96 per cent of its budget.
The
only way to put the country back on the development track is to convert the
present 27 divisions into provinces. Switzerland, with a population of only
eight million, has 26 provinces known as cantons, and is a very stable
democracy, despite having three linguistic groups French, German and Italian.
With
more provinces, a much greater number of our people will be able to participate
in the political process and get an adequate representation in government.
Shakir Lakhani
Karachi
Published in Dawn, May 19th, 2016
Post a Comment