The Londoner

By Sikander Hayat After one unit was broken, Punjab was gifted with the Sate of Bahawalpur. Khairour was awarded to Sindh, A completely new province of Balochistan was created which comprised of Ketch, Lasbella, Kharan, Mekran and Qalat. NWFP had its influence in Swat, Chitral & Dir. The federation can grant provincial autonomy to its units in exchange for their willingness to divide themselves a new to make available basic amenities to their populations. One way of achieving this is by granting provincial status to each of the divisions. This is a very sensible idea as the boundaries are already present. It was the federation that created the provinces out of one unit. It has every right to restructuring itself so that after giving provincial autonomy it can work on water conservation schemes, attain organizational efficiency, and improve its image abroad

By Sikander Hayat Devolution of power is the single most important issue facing Pakistan at the moment after terrorism and some might say that later is the product of the former not being implemented. Before devolution happens, there is a need for creation of further provincial units as the present units are too big to have any impact on governance at the local level. At least 15 Provincial units should be created in addition to the State of Azad Kasmir ; as the country should rather have 15 autonomous provinces than four which do not have the powers to govern their affairs. Strategic assets like Karachi, Gwadar and Islamabad should be under federal jurisdiction . Northern Areas should be divided into two provinces. One centred on former princely states of Baltistan (Swat, Kaghan etc.) and other around Skardu & Gilgit. Azad Kashmir should be left as it is because of it having a lot of autonomy already with its own Prime Minister, President and directly elected assembl