‘Conflict among provinces has weakened federation’

Karachi

The 18th amendment was a major breakthrough as far as federalism in this country is concerned. Making new provinces is an uphill task for any federation, which is perhaps why Pakistan has been reluctant to take the step.

These views were expressed by Professor Dr Muhammad Ali, an assistant professor at the Karachi University's Department of Political Science, on Tuesday at a training workshop on “Model CCI: Debating Federalism” organised by the Hanns Seidel Foundation and the department. 

Elaborating on the matter, Dr Ali said the country comes across as a weak federation due to the perpetual conflict among  provinces over distribution of powers and resources. 

Kishwar Khan, assistant professor at the varsity's history department, said the Council of Common Interests (CCI) was the backbone of Pakistani federation. “The CCI was constituted in view of bridging gap between centre and provinces,” she said.  “But, unfortunately, to this day only 13 meetings of the CCI have been held.”