Peshawar (Web Desk): Punjab Group Chairman Mian Amer Mahmood has said that transforming every administrative division into a separate province would generate new leadership and strengthen national governance.
Addressing a seminar, titled, "Pakistan 2030: Challenges, Imkanaat aur Nai Rahein" (Challenges, Possibilities and the Way Forward), organized by the Association of Private Sector Universities of Pakistan (APSUP), at CECOS University, Peshawar on Thursday, he said that over the past 79 years, Pakistan has seen many leaders rise and fall, but none have brought the long-term transformation the country truly needs.
Mian Amer Mahmood emphasized that empowering local leadership and decentralizing authority are essential steps toward solving the nation’s persistent challenges.
“Our institutions are weak and have turned into centers of corruption, incapable of ensuring accountability for the powerful,” he remarked.
Drawing comparisons with regional progress, the Punjab Group chairman noted that while India, which achieved independence alongside Pakistan, has advanced in development, Pakistan has been left behind.
“The founders of Pakistan laid solid foundations. In the early decades, our people even helped other nations progress, but over time we lost momentum, while China has emerged as a global power,” he observed.
Mian Amer explained that Pakistan’s governance framework is based on four federating units designed to serve public welfare through key governance principles.
Citing a World Bank report, he said the country’s institutional weakness fuels corruption and injustice, leaving the middle and lower classes to bear the brunt while the powerful remain untouched.
Mian Amer Mahmood said that a small elite, numbering only a few thousand, has captured control of every major institution.
“The elite in Pakistan enjoy privileges exceeding those of people living in Switzerland,” he said.
The Punjab Group chairman argued that Pakistan’s current four-province system is outdated, with Punjab alone representing 52 percent of the population — larger than all other provinces combined.
“There is no example in the world where one federating unit overshadows all others to this extent,” he added.
Discussing governance issues, he said that Balochistan’s vast size makes it nearly impossible to manage from Quetta.
“When Pakistan was founded, Balochistan’s population was just 1.1 million, yet we have never achieved lasting stability there,” he pointed out.
Citing India’s example, Mian Amer said that the neighboring country expanded from nine to thirty-nine provinces in the same span of 78 years, while Pakistan has remained stuck with four.
“Every division should be turned into a province,” he proposed, asserting that smaller provinces would bring efficiency and produce capable local leadership. “Punjab alone is larger than about twelve countries in the world,” he added.
Highlighting administrative inefficiency, the Punjab Group chairman said that it is impractical to run Punjab’s 60,000 schools from Lahore or Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s (KP) 32,000 schools from Peshawar.
He shared that 25 million children across Pakistan are currently out of school, including 500,000 in Peshawar alone, and around 5,000 schools still operate without electricity.
Earlier, addressing the gathering, APSUP Chairman Professor Dr. Chaudhry Abdul Rehman lauded Mian Amer Mahmood as a true national hero who has established over 450 colleges and three top-tier universities.
He said that nations which plan for their future always prosper, while Pakistan continues to suffer from deep-rooted corruption and a crumbling education system.
Professor Dr. Chaudhry Abdul Rehman said that meaningful change begins with the middle class and that Pakistan needs to collectively rebuild its system of governance.
“We must also strive for personal reform and follow the teachings of the Holy Prophet (PBUH); only then will Allah’s blessings be with us,” he said.
He noted that just two decades remain before Pakistan marks its 100th year, and the responsibility now lies with the educated youth to define the nation’s course.
“Mian Amer Mahmood is presenting a vision that can safeguard your future,” the APSUP Chairman said.