Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi urged all political parties on Thursday to settle the issue of creating more provinces to reform governance in Pakistan [1].
The proposal suggests that the current administrative structure is insufficient to manage the country's needs. Changing these boundaries could redistribute resources, and improve local administration across the nation [1, 2].
Speaking at the Pakistan Economic Summit 2026 [1], Naqvi said that the existing system has collapsed. He said that the creation of new administrative units is a necessary step to improve the overall condition of the country [1, 2].
Naqvi said that political leaders must engage the general population to build support for these structural changes. “You will have to take [the matter of] administrative units, provinces or whatever you may call it, to the public,” Naqvi said [1].
The minister said that the current political stalemate regarding governance is a primary barrier to national progress. He said that without a collective effort to redesign the administrative map, the state will struggle to evolve [1].
“Unless they do so, unless they sit together and change this, this country will remain in the same condition,” Naqvi said [1].
The call for new provinces has been a recurring point of debate in Pakistani politics for years. Proponents argue that smaller provinces allow for better service delivery and more representative governance, while critics often fear it could exacerbate ethnic tensions or lead to further political fragmentation [1, 2].
““Unless they do so, unless they sit together and change this, this country will remain in the same condition,””
The push for new provinces represents a fundamental shift toward decentralization. By advocating for smaller administrative units, the government aims to reduce the distance between citizens and policymakers, potentially easing the burden on overstretched provincial capitals and improving the efficiency of public service delivery in remote regions.
