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Why Pakistan Is Falling Apart: Asim Munir Plans To Break Provinces To Save The Country
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News18•16-10-2026, 14:45
Why Pakistan Is Falling Apart: Asim Munir Plans To Break Provinces To Save The Country
- •Reports indicate that Pakistan Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir is planning to divide the four existing provinces into 12 to 15 smaller ones.
- •The official reason given is better administration, but analysts believe it is an attempt to crush growing ethnic rebellions in Sindh, Balochistan, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
- •Muhammad Ali Jinnah's two-nation theory and the enforcement of Urdu as the sole official language failed to unite diverse ethnic groups, leading to the creation of Bangladesh in 1971.
- •Out of Pakistan's 25 million population, nearly half resides in Punjab, which faces allegations of dominating the other smaller provinces.
- •Munir fears that without breaking the provincial identities, Pakistan faces the threat of further fragmentation just like East Pakistan.
Key Questions Answered
Pakistan's army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, is reportedly planning to divide the country's four main provinces—Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Balochistan—into 12 to 15 smaller provinces or up to 160 administrative units.
The ostensible justification given for the proposed reorganisation is improving administrative efficiency, addressing large population and size imbalances, and ensuring better governance and public service delivery across the regions.
In 1955, Pakistan abolished all of its provinces and fused them into a single administrative unit to suppress regional and linguistic identities, mandating Urdu as the official language before eventually restoring the provinces in 1970.
