Pakistan is currently embroiled in intense debate over remarks made by Federal Interior Minister Syed Mohsin Naqvi, who advocated for creating new provinces or administrative units. Naqvi argued that the country’s current administrative structure is failing because the system has collapsed, urging all political parties to settle key national issues, including the question of provincial restructuring.
He went on to warn the ruling political parties that superficial perks, such as monthly stipends and free tablets, fall far short of what today's youth actually demand: systemic reform and merit-based employment. Conceding that the government is currently failing to deliver on these expectations, Naqvi cautioned that if young people whom he referred to using the moniker "cockroaches," popularized during recent student protests in India were to unite, "they can turn everything upside down.
The irony of Naqvi’s remarks is undeniable, as he is among the biggest beneficiaries of the very system he critiques. Rising from entry-level employment to media mogul, caretaker Chief Minister, and now Pakistan’s most powerful Interior Minister, Naqvi’s reach spans far and wide. Acting as an aide to Field Marshal Asim Munir during the Iran war on behalf of Rawalpindi, he effectively sidelined the Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister. He also chairs the lucrative Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and personally traveled to the US to oversee Boeing purchases for PIA. For someone yielding such immense influence, his complaints of system failure ring starkly.
Nevertheless, his points regarding structural reform resonate. Pakistan faces a looming demographic crisis with a 3% growth rate and a population of 250 million 64% of whom are under 30. For these 140 million young people, even foreign degrees offer little guarantee of a future, as lucrative jobs are routinely funneled to the well-connected elite through a corrupt political and bureaucratic apparatus.
Pakistan’s youth currently contend with systemic favoritism and nepotism spanning job recruitment, sports administration, and public service entry. Widespread corruption, transactional deals, and high-profile exam leaks, rom Cambridge assessments to the competitive Central Superior Services (CSS) examinations, have deeply disillusioned this demographic. Echoing the youth-led political upheavals recently witnessed in Bangladesh, Nepal, and India, these grievances make elite anxieties about potential Gen-Z unrest entirely justified, as such a movement directly threatens established networks of patronage.
While intended to empower the grass roots, the initial local bodies system created local fiefdoms and empowered a new political elite, deepening the system of elite capture that drains billions (ADB data $17.4) from Pakistan's economy each year.
Recalling my 2008 research for a documentary supported by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Decentralization Support Programme, I analyzed the Local Government Ordinance of 2001 across all provinces. My fieldwork took me to the four provincial capitals and districts like Bannu, Mianwali, Multan, and Muzaffargarh to record interviews with elected Nazims from union councils up to district level. Though this local governance model initially transformed Pakistan’s political landscape to wide acclaim, it began to unravel after the 2002 general elections with the restoration of federal and provincial assemblies and the parliaments.
The local government reforms abolished the traditional Deputy Commissioner role, replacing it with a District Coordination Officer (DCO) who oversaw 14 departments. Both the DCO and district police chief were placed under the authority of the elected District or City Nazim. Yet, interviews conducted across Pakistan for the documentary on Musharraf’s local bodies system revealed widespread frustration among Nazims.////// They accused provincial parliamentarians of stripping local governments of their power to restore old bureaucratic and police hierarchies.
Nazims reported that Chief Ministers routinely bypassed them to directly handle police appointments, effectively neutering local governance. Ironically, while intended to empower the grass roots, the initial local bodies system created local fiefdoms and empowered a new political elite, deepening the system of elite capture that drains billions (ADB data $17.4) from Pakistan's economy each year.
Formed to reform Pakistan's local governance, the National Reconstruction Bureau (NRB) was initially led by Lt. Gen. Tanvir Hussain Naqvi and later by Daniyal Aziz, a newly elected MNA from Gujrat. Between 2003 and 2004, the NRB came under heavy fire in the National Assembly. Aziz avoided parliamentary oversight by pointing out that the bureau operated outside any federal ministry.
Forced eventually to brief lawmakers, Aziz walked away after just two sessions following unproven allegations regarding his wife’s NGO. However, the opposition was largely driven by political self-preservation: parliamentarians (PPP, PMLN, ANP, MMA) saw local bodies as a direct threat to their authority. Even today, development schemes like roads, sanitation, electricity, and gas remain controlled by national and provincial lawmakers, with billions in development funds funneled directly to them.
Designed to consolidate his regime and cultivate a political base, echoing the strategies of General Ayub Khan and General Zia-ul-Haq, Musharraf’s local government order was only selectively implemented. To protect the patronage powers of provincial and national legislators, critical clauses establishing transparency, public audits, the district ombudsman, a dedicated district cadre, Citizen Community Boards, and Provincial Finance Commissions were deliberately bypassed.
Since the LGO 2001 was imposed via executive orders (Ordinances) without constitutional entrenchment at the time, it lacked long-term sustainability. Once General Musharraf stepped down and political parties came to power after 2008, provincial governments allowed the LGO 2001 to expire. Later, despite the 18th Amendment (2010) introducing Article 140A, which mandates that provinces establish local governments and devolve political, administrative, and financial authority, provinces passed localized municipal acts that clawed back authority to the provincial capitals.
Establishing new provinces in Pakistan requires extensive groundwork, much of which has already been laid for two potential regions. The primary constitutional requirement—a provincial assembly resolution, was fulfilled for South Punjab on May 9, 2012. Creating a South Punjab province was a top manifesto promise of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) during the 2008 general elections. However, it was the then-ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) that ultimately tabled the resolution in the Punjab Assembly, while the PPP failed to deliver on its pledge before its term ended in 2013. Similarly, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly passed a resolution in December 2025, advocating for the creation of a new 'Hazara' province in the north. Despite these procedural steps, creating new administrative units remains a formidable challenge, as it demands a two-thirds majority in Parliament to pass the necessary constitutional amendments.
To achieve genuine administrative and financial devolution and strengthen local bodies, superficial media debates orchestrated by attention-seekers, who are themselves beneficiaries of this corrupt and collapsing system will only cause further harm. Instead, the country urgently needs serious structural reforms. We must establish new administrative units or provinces backed by a comprehensive and detailed constitutional framework, rather than relying on a weak, one-line clause for local governments and new administrative units.
Furthermore, the mounting anger and resentment among our youth, sometimes dismissively compared to 'Indian cockroaches' must be addressed as an utmost priority, long before creating new provinces or administrative units, by generating concrete job opportunities across all sectors by ensuring merit. Armed with smartphones, Gen-Z can easily mobilize into a formidable force of digital warriors. Sooner or later, as Generation Alpha joins their ranks, they will form an unstoppable wave of disruption beyond the control of any power, armed or unarmed.