On to the 28th?

Adviser to the Prime Minister on Political and Public Affairs Rana Sanaullah said on Monday that the government is finalising the 28th Amendment, noting that the draft would be tabled once a broader consensus is reached. He said the proposed amendment would relate to local bodies, the National Finance Commission (NFC) and health matters, adding that discussions on these subjects were already underway. The recently passed 27th Amendment initially included the NFC and health matters, among other issues, but these were removed before it was passed; only changes related to the judicial structure and military command were retained. Observers had pointed out then that, while the PPP had rejected changes to the NFC and other provincial subjects protected under the 18th Amendment, the federal government faces growing fiscal pressure. Provinces are being pushed to increase their share of revenue collection, since major national responsibilities – such as the defence budget, debt servicing, development projects and the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) – currently draw no contribution from provinces despite serving the entire country. There are now speculations about whether provinces may eventually be persuaded, or compelled, to contribute a percentage of their budgets to one of these four areas. But no province is willing to take a cut in its NFC share, a stance that has already fuelled controversy in the first quarter of the current financial year.

Although the federal government increased NFC Award revenues for all four provinces, data shows that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Balochistan received a much smaller share of this increase compared to Punjab and Sindh. The imbalance becomes even more concerning when placed against vulnerability data. According to the District Vulnerability Index for Pakistan (DVIP), nearly 10 million Pakistanis live in the 20 most vulnerable districts. More than half of this population resides in Balochistan, making up over 40 per cent of the province’s total population. The most vulnerable category includes two districts in KP, one in Sindh, none in Punjab – and a staggering 17 in Balochistan. When these statistics are shared, they underscore just how central the NFC Award is for the smaller and more disadvantaged provinces.

On the political front, observers say the government wants to include MQM-Pakistan’s proposed amendment regarding the empowerment of local governments in the 28th Amendment. But this is unlikely to find support in the PPP, given the deep political rivalry between the two parties in Sindh. The resistance is not confined to one province: it is unfortunate that both Punjab and Sindh continue to resist empowering local bodies, despite the crucial role that devolution plays in any functional democracy. It seems both the PML-N and the PPP prefer to keep power centralised in the hands of the chief minister, rather than devolving authority to elected local representatives. The PPP invokes the 18th Amendment frequently but remains unwilling to extend its spirit to meaningful local autonomy. Local governments are the backbone of real democratic systems around the world – yet our political parties appear averse to such devolution. If provinces insist on safeguarding their NFC shares, they must also demonstrate responsibility towards strengthening local democracy. Empowered grassroots governments are essential for addressing people’s everyday grievances, ensuring better service delivery, and creating genuine channels of representation. Whether the 28th Amendment can build consensus on these contentious issues is debatable but one does hope that this time provinces will prioritise the rights and needs of their own people, not merely the power and privilege of their provincial governments.