MULTAN: In a significant political alignment, Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) leader and Federal Minister for Health Mustafa Kamal has publicly endorsed Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi’s proposal to redraw the administrative map of the country. Speaking at a ceremony on Friday, Kamal argued that the existing federal structure is failing its citizens, signaling a growing consensus among key coalition partners for radical governance reforms.
The senior minister stressed that the current system of one federation and four provinces is no longer viable for a nation of Pakistan’s size and complexity. “Pakistan is larger than 180 countries in the world. There is a need to form more administrative units,” Kamal stated, reinforcing the position of his party chairman, Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui. He emphasized that creating new units is essential to bring administration closer to the people and improve service delivery.
A Growing Political Consensus
Mustafa Kamal’s remarks come just days after Federal Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi endorsed a similar proposal by Dunya Group Chairman Mian Amer Mahmood at the Economic Summit 2026 in Islamabad. Naqvi had forcefully argued that Pakistan’s decades-old governance model has consistently failed to address public needs, requiring structural reforms rather than isolated policy interventions.
Naqvi contended that the country’s administrative paralysis is not due to a lack of economic potential but deep-rooted weaknesses in the governance structure. He stressed that any meaningful overhaul would require a broad political consensus, moving beyond partisan lines to restructure the state’s decision-making apparatus.
The Human Cost of Administrative Failure
Highlighting the dire consequences of the current system, Naqvi presented stark public health statistics to underscore the governance crisis. “Four hundred thousand children die every year due to various diseases; these lives can be saved,” he revealed at the summit. He further noted that 11 million people in the country are suffering from Hepatitis C and that every third person is diabetic.
In a candid admission of bureaucratic constraints, Naqvi clarified the limits of his own cabinet role, stating that regulating medicine prices is a cabinet-level decision, not the sole purview of the Health Minister. He also pointed out that the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) has already deregulated the prices of some medicines, indicating a complex web of administrative challenges that new, more localized governance units might help untangle.
The synchronized messaging from the Interior and Health ministries suggests that the proposal for new administrative units is moving from a conceptual debate toward a concrete political agenda, setting the stage for a potentially transformative national dialogue on the future of Pakistani federalism.
