Governance failures

Pakistan's Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi has proposed creating new administrative provinces to fix the country's governance crisis, an idea that faced criticism from across the political spectrum. Per Dawn, the Lahore High Court Bar Association called the proposal unconstitutional, and leaders from the PPP, Awami Tehreek, and other parties rejected it outright. Columnist Maleeha Lodhi, a former ambassador, argues the real problem is not the number of provinces, but decades of elite capture, political instability, and failed economic policies. She contends that successive governments—both civilian and military—have avoided structural reform, instead relying on external loans and bailouts rather than mobilizing domestic resources. That pattern has left Pakistan trapped in low growth, high debt, and persistent crises in security, education, and infrastructure.

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