DND Report: “Certain political and non-political circles are deliberately attempting to create the impression that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) does not support the creation of new provinces, or that this matter will only be addressed after the 2029 general elections. This impression is contrary to the facts.”
This was stated by several PML-N old guards when they were informally asked about their views on the formation of new administrative units in the country.
Since the party leadership has yet to issue an official statement on the issue in Parliament, senior PML-N leaders said they could explain the party’s position informally and on condition of anonymity until an official statement is issued by PML-N Supreme Leader Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif.
They are of the view that the PML-N is fully prepared for the creation of new provinces, as its leadership has openly supported this agenda on numerous occasions. They stated that during the 2026 national debate on administrative restructuring, several key PML-N figures publicly supported increasing the number of provinces to improve service delivery.
In November 2026, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif backed the proposal to increase the number of Pakistan’s provinces from four to as many as 12. He stated that power and financial authority remain overly concentrated in Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar and Quetta, and argued that smaller administrative units should be created on administrative rather than linguistic or ethnic grounds.
In September 2026, Federal Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal called for a national political debate on governance reform, proposing either the creation of 12 to 15 new provinces or the establishment of 160 empowered district governments to improve public services.
During a televised political discussion in August 2026, Federal Minister Raza Hayat Hiraj affirmed that new provinces would eventually be created to address Pakistan’s growing administrative needs.
Special Assistant to the Prime Minister Rana Sanaullah stated in September 2026 that the PML-N was open to discussing new administrative units, maintaining that the party would formalise its position inside Parliament rather than through informal media debates.
The PML-N has a documented history of supporting new provinces through parliamentary assemblies. During its previous tenures in Punjab, the PML-N supported and passed two separate resolutions in the Provincial Assembly—one calling for the restoration of Bahawalpur Province and another advocating the creation of a South Punjab Province.
Senior PML-N leaders, including Ahsan Iqbal, Rana Tanveer Hussain and Rana Sanaullah, previously submitted a bill to the National Assembly Secretariat seeking to amend Article 1 of the Constitution to establish a separate Bahawalpur-South Punjab province.
The PML-N leadership has also historically expressed conditional support for carving out a Hazara Province in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, stating that it would support a constitutional bill in the National Assembly once the provincial assembly passes the required constitutional resolution.
PML-N leaders argue that federal funds transferred to provincial capitals often fail to trickle down to peripheral districts, and that smaller provinces would ensure a more equitable distribution of financial resources.
With Pakistan’s population exceeding 240–260 million, PML-N ministers contend that four massive provincial administrations are no longer sufficient to deliver basic healthcare, education and municipal services effectively.
The PML-N consistently frames its support around administrative efficiency rather than ethnic or linguistic divisions, which helps counter criticism that the creation of new provinces would fuel regional polarisation.
Critics and political analysts point out that, despite vocal support from individual ministers, the PML-N has not yet introduced a formal constitutional bill in 2026. Under Article 239(4) of Pakistan’s Constitution, altering provincial boundaries requires a two-thirds majority in both houses of Parliament, as well as a two-thirds majority in the affected provincial assembly—a high threshold given opposition from coalition partners such as the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) to any division of Sindh. Therefore, the PML-N wants to move forward once its homework with other political parties, including the PPP, has been completed.
A number of PML-N parliamentarians are of the view that the creation of new administrative units is also a demand of the youth and that political parties should respect the public’s voice. They believe the political elite must not attempt to suppress public demands or manufacture a false impression against them by leveraging specific, hand-picked political representatives.
The argument that the rejection of a proposal by elected representatives equates to its rejection by the public is entirely invalid. A vast majority of the Pakistani public desires the creation of additional administrative units. This would facilitate the resolution of long-standing and serious problems that the existing, overly centralised and sprawling provincial governance structures have failed to address for decades.
The proper way to ascertain the true will of the people is through the clear constitutional avenues and procedures stipulated in the Constitution—not through narratives or political slogans driven by the interests of political parties.
Everyone must bear in mind this fundamental principle: in a democracy, the voice and aspirations of the people take precedence above all else; the role of their elected representatives comes only thereafter.
