Bureau Report
LAHORE: Former Punjab Local Government Minister and UMT President Ibrahim Hasan Murad has called for a comprehensive review of Pakistan’s administrative structure, noting that the population has grown sevenfold since independence while provincial boundaries remain unchanged.
Speaking to participants of the Mid-Career Management Course at the Pakistan Administrative Services Academy during a UMT study visit, he said comparable federal countries have 27 to 51 administrative units. He noted that Punjab’s population exceeds that of Iran and Germany, Sindh’s that of South Korea, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s that of Poland.
Murad stressed that decisions on new provinces or administrative units should rest on population, geography, economic capacity and ground realities, not political slogans. He also raised concerns about equitable distribution of National Finance Commission (NFC) resources among districts.
He argued that administering remote districts from distant provincial capitals hampers service delivery, and that decision-making should be brought closer to citizens. Citing Article 140-A of the Constitution, he said local governments need political, administrative and financial authority, warning that devolving responsibilities without funds would leave them ineffective.
He concluded that decentralisation, accountability and fair resource distribution must anchor governance reform.
