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Regional Identities in Quest of Separate Provinces: a New Challenge for the Pakistani Federation

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Regional Identities in Quest of Separate Provinces: a New Challenge for the Pakistani Federation Journal of Political Studies, Vol. 23, Issue - 1, 2016, 289:307 Regional Identities in Quest of Separate Provinces: A New Challenge for the Pakistani Federation Muhammad Mushtaq* Abstract1 Historically, the centre-province relationship in Pakistan has remained problematic. However, the federation has made an effort to satisfy the numerous autonomy demands of smaller provinces through the 18th amendment in the constitution. This development has underpinned the mobilization of minority groups in certain provinces for the creation of new provinces in their respective regional bases. The majority groups of related provinces seem reluctant to endorse such demands. Equally, the provinces of Sindh and Balochistan have discarded the creation of new provinces for certain reasons. Sadly, the issue has been politicized for the petty constituency politics by certain political parties. The federation seems hesitant to fulfil the demands as it might open the Pandora’s Box of representation and distributional issues that would be unaffordable for the turbulent federation which is already experiencing numerous problems. However, the demands for new provinces that have considerable popular support should be materialized. This paper suggests that the issue should be resolved rationally through dialogue and consensus. The analysis reveals that many demands are difficult to be fulfilled by the federation. However, it appears that the demand for a new province in south Punjab is relatively reasonable. It seems that the division of Punjab would dilute the perception of Punjabi dominance in politics of Pakistan. Therefore, this paper contends that the division of Punjab on administrative basis will improve the capacity of federation to manage ethnic diversity. Keywords: Separate Provinces, Regional Identities, Federation, Pakistan 1 An earlier draft of this paper was presented in an International Conference on ‘Rethinking Territoriality - Between Independence and Interdependence’ in Edinburgh, UK from 16 to 18 September 2015. The author is grateful of Higher Education Commission, Islamabad and International Political Science Association for sponsorship. __________________________________ *Authors is Head of Political Science & International Relations Department at University of Gujrat, Pakistan. Muhammad Mushtaq Introduction: Managing ethnic diversity has remained a challenge for the Pakistani federation since its inception in 1947. Even after the separation of East Pakistan in 1971, the autonomy movements in minority provinces have remained alive. Resultantly, the federation adopted the eighteenth constitutional amendment in 2010 to satisfy the numerous autonomy demands of the smaller provinces. However, after this development, the demands for the creation of new provinces by the provincial minorities in certain regions of the state have got momentum. These demands have shaped another challenge for the turbulent federation. This paper examines the demands of regional identities and investigates how these demands have been politicized for the constituency politics. Subsequently, the paper examines how the proposed new provinces would contribute to federal stability in Pakistan. 1: The Federal Experience in Pakistan Following the partition of India, Pakistan came into being on August 14, 1947. It was composed of the provinces of East Bengal, Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly North-Western Frontier Province — NWFP) and a number of princely states. Pakistan inherited the colonial institutions and political practices. Between 1947 and 1956, the new state adopted the Government of India Act 1935 with certain amendments as interim constitution. The Act had certain federal provisions such as the division of legislative and administrative powers between the centre and provinces. However, the centre had a commanding position vis-à-vis the provinces. A constituent assembly2 was set-up which was assigned the task to formulate a constitution for Pakistan. The first major step towards constitution-making in Pakistan was the passing of the Objective Resolution in 1949. The resolution laid down the principles that were to guide the constitutional process in Pakistan. One of the key principles agreed upon was that the system of the government in Pakistan would be federal. However, there was disagreement among various constituent units over certain issues. The divergence of opinion among provinces upon the federal structure of the state delayed the process. The major challenge for the federation was to design an acceptable modus operandi of representation in the national legislature that had become a bone of contention among the federating units. Equally, there was a lack of 2Constituent assembly was composed of the members who were elected, in the elections of 1945-46 in British India, from the regions that were now part of Pakistan and the members who migrated to Pakistan. 290 Regional Identities in Quest of Separate Provinces consensus on how much powers should be given to the second chamber in the parliamentary federal structure of the state. To deal with this disagreement, a unicameral legislature was organized. Furthermore, the provinces and states of the western wing were merged into a combined province of West Pakistan. Although the province of East Pakistan had more population (nearly 54% of the total) than the West Pakistan, the bipolar federation provided representation in federal legislature on the principle of parity. In the constitution of 1956, the federation adopted unicameral legislature — a very unusual practice in federal states. The first constitution of Pakistan proved short-lived and the martial law was imposed in October 1958. Ayub Khan, the then chief martial law administrator, framed the second constitution in 1962. A highly centralized system of government was set up under this constitution (Khan, 2005). Again, a unicameral legislature was adopted in this constitution. When Ayub Khan stepped down in 1969, he abrogated the constitution of 1962 and handed over the government to Yahiya, the then Commander-in-Chief of the army. During the martial law, in March 1970, one-unit scheme was abandoned and the West Pakistan was divided into the provinces of Punjab, Sindh, N.W.F.P (now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) and Balochistan3. After the separation of East Pakistan in 1971, the National Assembly of Pakistan enacted the 1973 constitution of Pakistan. The constitution of 1973 was considered as a broad-based consensus document. The constitution provided more autonomy to the provinces and adopted bicameral legislature. Regardless of their population size, the provinces were provided equal representation in the Senate. However, the Senate was provided secondary role viz-a-viz the popularly elected National Assembly. It had been argued that although the constitution of 1973 had formal federal features, yet mostly it had operated more like a unitary system. Resultantly, “the political centralization caused a sense of marginalization and alienation in the smaller provinces of Pakistan” (Mushtaq, 2009). Soon, the minority provinces began to raise demands for more autonomy by abolishing the concurrent legislative list. The demands also included the extended role of the Senate and recognition of identity through renaming the province of NWFP as Pakhtunkhwa. The Movement for Restoration of Democracy during Zia period (1977-88) and ‘Pakistan Oppressed Nations Movement’ demanded more autonomy for the provinces. Several of the autonomy demands were endorsed in the Charter of Democracy signed by Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif in 2006 in London. Subsequently, the 18th constitutional amendment provided more autonomy to 3 Balochistan got the status of a province for the first time. 291 Muhammad Mushtaq the provinces and strengthened the shared rule. In addition, the formula for distribution of funds was revised to make it more acceptable for the minority provinces. These steps of the federation were regarded as a move towards inclusive federalism(Adeney, 2012). But, soon after the enactment of 18th constitutional amendment, the provincial minorities/regional identities had started demands for the creation of separate provinces. The next section discusses the several demands for new provinces in detail. 2: Demands for the Creation of New Provinces It is generally acknowledged that each province of Pakistan is associated with a certain ethno-linguistic group— Punjab with Punjabis, Sindh with Sindhis, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with Pashtuns, and Balochistan with Balochs. However, the ethno-linguistic composition of each province demonstrates a substantial minority group. Table # 1: Ethnolinguistic Composition of Pakistan Language Punjab Sindh Khyber Balochistan Pakistan Pakhtunkhwa Urdu 4.5 21.1 0.8 1.6 7.8 Punjabi 75.2 7.0 1.0 2.9 45.4 Pashto 1.2 4.2 73.9 23.0 13.0 Sindhi 0.1 59.7 - 6.8 14.6 Balochi 0.7 2.1 - 58.5 3.5 Siraiki 17.4 1.0 3.9 2.6 10.9 Others 0.9 4.9 20.4 5.1 4.8 Total 100 100 100 100 100 Source: (Kennedy, Pakistan: Ethnic Diversity and Colonial Legacy, 2002) The provincial minority groups are concentrated in a particular region of the respective provinces: the Siraikis in southern Punjab, Hazarewals in Hazara region of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the Pashtuns in northern Balochistan, and Mohajirs in the urban Sindh, particularly in Karachi and Hyderabad. The provincial minorities are demanding separate provinces for their groups in the respective provincial regions. The Siraikis have launched a movement for the creation of Seraiki province comprising of the south
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