There has been a constant talk about making smaller provinces based on administrative needs rather than ethnic basis. Following has to be considered:
Ignoring wants of the concerned people: Just drawing lines on sand/soil based on Longitude and Latitude without considering Cultures, Wants and Aspirations of the people, (just because someone in the office who is not representing them and decide while drinking tea that it is a smart Idea) is bound to fail. These are the mistakes that British and other colonizers made (intentionally or unintentionally) and many people including Pakistan is suffering because of that.. Kashmir is struggling for independence for Religion, which has nothing to do with "administration", similarly, Kurdistan was divide overlooking the ethnicity of the people, Turks, Arabs, and Irainies are still trying to manage it.. not to mention the suffering of Kurds, themselves.
Rebutting a misconception: Be aware that yes Afghanistan has more than 30 provinces, but those provinces are as big as our districts, so if we are so impressed by them lets do away with provinces altogether and lets call districts provinces, we will have more provinces than Afghanistan.
In India provinces have been made on linguistic basis and all the major languages have official status and are strongly supported by the government. This is a practice that happens in most developed countries where languages of the provinces get official status and are supported by the government. Uthar Pardesh has more population than pakistan, Urdu is one of the official language there, just like Kashmiri in India Occupied Kashmir.
If size is the issue, California, Texas, Alaska, etc are as big as Pakistan, similar examples can be seen in the rest of the world.
YES GLOBALLY PROVINCES ARE MADE ON ETHNIC BASIS (CONSIDERING YOU ARE READING THIS SO YOU CAN GOOGLE IT RIGHT NOW)
Regional Languages: Pakistan doesn't allocate much resources to regional languages and they fail to understand that language is the primary source of transmision of culture. If we include one punjabi district in Saraiki province 50 years from now that district will be saraiki, for sure. So we cannt favor one language over the other.
Elephant in the room: Whether we agree with or not the reality is that South Punjab province is the call of Saraiki people, similarity hindkowans want there own province, Urdu speaking wants south sindh etc etc...
BUT IN MY OPINION there is nothing wrong with that and establishment should no be insecured i.e. no one is asking for separate country. And considering Pakistan is a federation all the stakeholders should be taken on board.
Takeaways:
a) South punjab provinces should only include Saraiki speaking areas and areas such as Okara, Jhang, Sargodha which are punjabi should not be included in south punjab province, as this will start more problems.
b) Local Languages have to be supported by the government and should be made official.
c) Also if Saraiki provinces is created similar to Saraikis in Punjab, more than 10 districts in Baluchistan are Pashto speaking, which may ask for their own province.
d) Local districts should be given a choice on whether they want to be a part of new province, to address the want of the people at the grass root level.
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