Under the Failed Capitalist Secular System, Creating New Provinces Will Not Change the Fate of Pakistan Unless This Failed System is Replaced with the Just System of Islam, the Khilafah

News:

Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry on 31st July termed good governance “quintessential” for Pakistan’s security and stability. “The will of the people of Pakistan is superior. If good governance requires an administrative reset, then it has to be done through constitutional methods, legal procedures and political representatives.” (Dawn)

Comment:

This debate of new provinces or new administrative units was erupted when the Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, the front man of the military establishment, on 30th July called for creating new administrative units, with additional provinces, to bring government closer to citizens, arguing that the country’s governance system had “collapsed” and required broad political consensus to reset it.

The basic argument presented by the rulers of Pakistan for the creation of new provinces is very simple. When Pakistan was created, the population was thirty million and we had four provinces. Now the population is 259 million, but we still have four provinces. So, the government claims this the main reason of the failure and governance cannot be assured for such large in size provinces with huge population. Therefore, the rulers say it is imperative that there must be more provinces in order to provide good governance so the problems of the people are solved.

However, if we look at India this argument simply loses its strength. At the time of independence, the population of India was about 330 million and had seventeen provinces. Now in 2026, India’s population is almost 1.5 billion and has 28 provinces. However, despite having more provinces, does India not face the same failure as we are facing? The failures are the same: poverty, inflation, injustice, rich becoming richer and poor becoming poorer. Actually, the problem of the number of provinces is secondary, the primary problem is the capitalist secular system which is incapable to solve the problems and change the fate of the people.

The capitalist economic system which ensures that most of the wealth circulates in few hands, and leaves very few resources for the over whelming population. So, no matter whether we increase or decrease the number of provinces, poverty will remain. The capitalist economic system ensures that energy must be in the hands of few capitalist, which results in ever increasing energy electricity and gas price and contributes to the rise in prices. So, no matter whether we increase or decrease the number of provinces, inflation will remain. This secular system gives a judiciary and police which follows the law and procedures of British Raj, unable to timely justice, without economically burdening the oppressed. So, no matter whether we increase or decrease the number of provinces, judiciary and police will always fail to deliver justice to the oppressed. This secular system gives a social system which encourages free mixing of men and women and immorality in the society. So, no matter whether we increase or decrease the number of provinces, indecency and vulgarity will remain. This secular system produces a foreign policy which is subservient to International Law, which ensures that we consider national boundaries and international institutions as inviolable and they don’t allow us to mobilize our armed forces in defense of the people of Palestine and Kashmir and to liberate them from the oppression of the Jewish entity and Hindu State respectively. So, no matter whether we increase or decrease the number of provinces, we will never be able to move our armed forces in Jihad to liberate Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa, which is an obligation on us.

There is no doubt that the current system has failed. However, the discussion should be about a system which replaces the current failed system, taking us forward and rescuing us from the downward spiral. The beneficiaries of the current failed secular capitalist system, the military and political leadership, intentionally started a discussion about the need for more provinces, whilst people believe the system has failed and are searching for a new system. In the past, whenever the ruling elite felt that people are in search of new system, they used to claim that we need democracy, if the country was under martial law, or we need military rulers if the country was under democracy. Then they changed their strategy and coined a new term, the hybrid system, comprising both civilian and military factions, as people lost their confidence in both democracy and military rule. Now the current hybrid system has also failed, so the ruling elite have brought yet another option; more provinces for better governance. However, we should not have any doubt that this will also fail as the real culprit, the failed secular capitalist system will remain and intact.

The Muslims of Pakistan must know that our salvation is only possible when we replace this failed system with the system of Islam, the Khilafah (Caliphate). Allah (swt) has clearly warned us in Noble Quran that if we follow something other than His (swt)’s guidance, then we fail in Dunya and Akhira. Allah (swt) said,

[وَمَنْ أَعْرَضَ عَن ذِكْرِي فَإِنَّ لَهُ مَعِيشَةً ضَنكًا وَنَحْشُرُهُ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ أَعْمَىٰ * قَالَ رَبِّ لِمَ حَشَرْتَنِي أَعْمَىٰ وَقَدْ كُنتُ بَصِيرًا * قَالَ كَذَٰلِكَ أَتَتْكَ آيَاتُنَا فَنَسِيتَهَا ۖ وَكَذَٰلِكَ الْيَوْمَ تُنسَىٰ]

“But whosoever turns away from this Admonition from Me shall have a straitened life; We shall raise him blind on the Day of Resurrection, where-upon he will say: ‘Lord! Why have You raised me blind when I had sight in the world?’ Allah will say: ‘Even so it is. Our Signs came to you and you ignored them. So shall you be ignored this Day.’” [TMQ Surah Taha 20:124-126].

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Shahzad Shaikh – Wilayah Pakistan