How should Pakistan Manage the Equitable Distribution of Resources among Different Ethnic Regions to Address Historical Grievances and Promote Developments across the Country?

CSS 2024 Solved Pakistan Affairs Past Papers | Ways for Pakistan to Manage Equitable Resources Distribution

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Question Breakdown

In this question, first, we need to give a brief recap of the reservations different ethnic regions have towards resource distribution and then we have to write the measures the government of Pakistan should take to address these historical grievances and promote developments across the country. Remember, we try to break down our question before attempting so that we may distribute answers accordingly.

Outline

1- Introduction

2- A brief Account of the Past Grievances of Provinces towards the Resource Distribution

3- Steps needed by the state of Pakistan to address the longstanding grievances of different ethnic groups

• ✓ Need to shift the calculations of NFC award from the major factor, population, to need-based and incentive-based model
• ✓ Giving provinces their due royalty on natural resources
• ✓ Fulfilling the provision of Article 158, enabling provinces to use their own resources to meet their own requirements first
• ✓ New methods are needed to distribute water among the provinces
• ✓ Giving adequate representation in Parliament, the civil bureaucracy, and the military
• ✓ Ensuring equal infrastructure and human capital development projects

4- Conclusion

Answer to the Question

Introduction

Pakistan emerged on world’s map as federal state on August 14, 1947. The federal form of government was chosen to accommodate the ethnically diverse regions in the newly born state. However, even after period of 76 years, Pakistan continues to face challenges in evolving itself into a true federal state, with provinces expressing grievances on resource distribution criteria. For instance, a few provinces have reservations from Centre regarding their share of royalty for the usage of their resources. Similarly, some provinces have issue with their share of water under the Water Apportionment Accord 1991. However, measures, such as the need to make NFC award need-based and incentive-based, enable provinces to use their own resources to meet their own requirements first, give provinces their due royalty on their resources usage, ensure equal level of infrastructure and human capital development across different provinces, should be taken to address the longstanding gripes of the provinces and promote progress across the country.

A Brief Account of the past grievances of the provinces towards resource distribution

• Financial resources

NFC award, which is a constitutional mechanism to distribute financial resources among the provinces, has long remained contested. KP and Balochistan have repeatedly expressed their dissatisfactions over the NFC award. KP argues that it is a smaller provinces with a few resources, and great security challenges, and with the addition of Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) to its territory, it needs more to fulfill the needs of the province. Similarly, Balochistan presents its concerns on the pretext of poverty, poor infrastructure development, small industrial base, and security challenges to the province.

• Provinces concerns over the Centre’s dominance over their resources

The federal government has also been criticized for not fulfilling the provisions of article 158, which states that the province in which a wellhead of natural gas is situated shall have precedence over other parts of Pakistan in meeting its requirements from that wellhead. However, Balochistan claims that the situation with their resources is contrary to the provisions of the article. Despite being the first and major gas producer, the province could not get gas until 1986 when gas was, for the first time, supplied to Quetta, and that to for a military cantonment whereas the supply to major cities started in 1964. Similarly, Sindh also claims that the federal government diverts much of its natural gas to other provinces, especially Punjab, whereas the province has to face gas shortages. Likewise, KP claims that it produces most of the electricity, but it has to buy the electricity at a much higher price and has to face long loadshedding hours, affecting the business activities of the provinces badly. The KP government, in July 2024, passed a resolution urging federal government to bring down the cost of the electricity for the province, and calls the Centre to prioritize KP in electricity distribution.

• Royalty over the usage of provinces’ resources issue

Royalty has been one of the important issue that has contributed to the grievances of the provinces towards the Centre. It was recognized in article 161 of the constitution that the provinces be paid royalties for natural gas production and hydro-power generation. However, Balochistan claims that the Centre is not paying its fair share of royalty for natural gas when compared with the royalties paid to Punjab and Sindh while KP claims that the federal government is not transacting its due share as the prices of electricity has gone up in recent years, so the royalty payments should increase. In connected to this issue, Ghazia-Barotha power project is another one. KP supplies water to a 1450 MW powerhouse in Barotha, situated in Punjab, for which Punjab is paid all the royalty, with KP having no share in royalty.

• Inter-provinces water distribution issue

Water distribution between the provinces have been a long-standing issue even after the Water Apportionment Accord of 1991, which is water distribution mechanism to distribute water among the provinces on the basis of need and requirements; however, it is fixed and creates a quantified privilege. Provinces like Sindh and Balochistan argue that the current water distribution system favors Punjab, the most populous and agriculturally productive province. Moreover, Balochistan repeatedly claims that Sindh is not giving its due share of water, in addition to its claim that Sindh owes Rs. 9 billion water royalty on Hub Dam. Interestingly, Sindh also accuses Punjab of not allowing Sindh’s due share of water.

• Underrepresentation in federal institutions

The smaller provinces, especially Balochistan, have historically been aggrieved over their representation in federal institutions, may it be in the National Assembly of Pakistan, or it be in the military or bureaucracy. The quota system, designed to ensure representation from all provinces, has often been criticized for not being implemented effectively. Smaller provinces argue that even when quotas are technically filled, the positions allocated to their candidates are often in less influential roles, further perpetuating disparities in power and influence. They claim that they have little to no role to play in decisions concerning the state and sometimes their own province.

• Infrastructure and human development capital development projects

Smaller provinces, especially Balochistan and KPK, argue that infrastructure projects by federal government are disproportionately higher in Punjab, with limited to no infrastructure and development initiatives for them. Balochistan has limited educational institutions with health facilities also small in number. This lack of infrastructure development exacerbates economic disparities and limits opportunities for local populations.

Steps needed by the state of Pakistan to address the longstanding grievances of different ethnic groups

• Need to shift the calculations of NFC award from the major factor, population, to need-based and incentive-based model

There is a growing need to revisit the NFC award and transforming it from a population-based to a need-based and incentive-based model. Historically, NFC award has been a blessing for bigger provinces, like Punjab, owing to its population. But that needs to be changed to make it an incentive-based model, where provinces share be calculated based on their performance on various indicators and their immediate needs, in addition to other factors, like population. This will cater the needs of the provinces, like if a province undergoes devastations due to flood, it gets it extra share in upcoming NFC award or if a province is facing low literacy rate, it obtains extra share to cover for human development initiatives. Moreover, being an incentive-based model, it will encourage smaller provinces to achieve certain socio-economic milestones as the resources will be tied to the performance of each province. For instance, India’s Finance Commission award is dynamic and adopts multi-based criteria with five broad categories: need, equity, efficiency, financial disability, and non-plan resource expenditure. As a result, India’s financial awards not only take care of the various states’ needs, but also encourage them to work on their behalf to make developments really happen.

• Giving provinces their due royalty on the natural resources usage

There is a growing need to establish a fair royalty distribution mechanism to distribute royalties in a reliable manner, which can address longstanding grievances of provinces towards the Centre. This could include establishing independent regulatory bodies or commissions with representation from all provinces. These bodies should be in charged with giving provinces their due royalty share to assist them in developing themselves. Implementing strict monitoring and reporting mechanisms to ensure transparency in how royalties are calculated, distributed, and spent should be made cornerstone of these institutions or independent bodies. It can involve independent audits and public disclosure of royalty revenue and expenditure. Another option is to handover the revenue generation option to provinces, where provinces will collect taxes for their territory’s resource usage and will share some of it with the Centre to ensure the federal machinery working and a sort of assistance to smaller provinces. For instance, Canada is a country where provinces have control over their natural resources, allowing them to collect royalties. This system ensures that resource-rich provinces like Alberta benefit directly from their natural wealth while contributing to the federal budget. The federal government also uses the Equalization Program to redistribute wealth among provinces, ensuring that less resource-rich provinces can maintain similar levels of public services.

• Fulfilling the provision of article 158, enabling provinces to use their own resources to meet its own requirements first

Being a federation along with provincial autonomy, Pakistan needs to implement the provisions of article 158, which enables provinces to meet out their needs from their natural resources first, in true letter and spirit. Provinces should be given the right to utilize their resources to fulfill their needs and contribute to its development before national or international exploitation. Australia’s federal system grants states and territories significant authority over their natural resources. This decentralized approach allows each state to tailor its resource management policies to meet local needs and priorities. By retaining control over natural resources, Australian states can ensure that local needs are met first, supporting regional economies, and fostering balanced national development. Pakistan has great lessons to learn from such a system as in its case, the province which was first to produce natural gas is one of the least developed in the whole country.

• New methods are needed to distribute water among the provinces

There is a need to upgrade the 28 years old water allocation mechanism, which often lead to water allocations that are unacceptable to the provinces, especially during times of uncertainty, droughts and due to the stochastic nature of river flows. The federal water agencies of the country, the WAPDA and IRSA, should work along with the provincial water institutions to set up a modern, reliable, and independent methodology for water prediction. Along with the improvement in the water availability prediction, a reliable method of flow monitoring should be implemented by the federal government through an audit of conveyance losses, which should then be compensated to the concerned areas through an appropriate compensatory framework. There is a need to utilize modern technology, such as satellite imagery, sensors, and real-time telemetry systems, to monitor water usage and availability accurately. This data should be accessible to all provinces and used to make informed water allocation decisions.

• Giving adequate representation in Parliament, the civil bureaucracy, and the military

Smaller provinces be given adequate representation in federal institutions through a transparent and mutually agreed quota system, which will ensure these provinces adequate and proportionate representation in federal institutions. They should be encouraged and trained to join the civil and military services of the country. Their parliamentary seats should be increased, and the senate should be given more power as it is only area where there is equal representation for all provinces, which is also one of the demands of the province of Balochistan.

• Ensuring equal infrastructure and human capital developments projects

There is a need to ensure equal infrastructure and human capital developments in all provinces, especially the under-privileged provinces. EU Cohesion Policy is a guiding principle as it targets all regions and cities in the European Union in order to support job creation, business competitiveness, economic growth, sustainable development, and improvements to citizens’ quality of life. This will ensure the ending of the longstanding provincial grievances and will enable a conducive environment for the country’s development.

Conclusion

In a nutshell, resource distribution has always been a bone of contention between inter-provincial and province-state relations. The concerns of smaller provinces over the issues, such as the biased royalty share, unfair water distribution, and poor infrastructure, are true to a great extent but need the serious attention of the federal government.  There is a dire need to shift the calculations of NFC award from the major factor, population, to a need-based and incentive-based model, give provinces their fair share of royalty on the natural resources, fulfil the provision of article 158, enabling provinces to use their own resources to meet its own requirements first and ensure equal infrastructure and human capital developments projects across all provinces to make country tread its way towards progress and development.

CSS 2024 Solved Pakistan Affairs

2-	Political Stability Remains an Elusive Concept in Pakistan. Explore the Factors Contributing to the Fractured Nature of Pakistan’s Polity and Discuss Potential Reforms to the Constitutional and Political Structure that could Foster Stability?
3-	Keeping in View the Socio-Politico Circumstances of Sub-Continent, Discuss the Role of Sheikh Ahmed Sarhindi (Mujadid Alf Thani) Who Revived Islamic Ideology and Established Muslim Identity in Sub-Continent.
4-	The Democratization Process in Pakistan is Still Weak and Ambiguous. Do you consider Dynastic Politics and Feudalism are the Major Hindrances on the Way of Establishing True Democratic System in Pakistan? Explain.
5-	Global Warming Presents an Existential Threat to States like Pakistan. Examine the Far-Reaching Impacts of Global Warming on Pakistan and Propose a Model of  Economic Development that Aligns to the Environmental Protection.
6-	How should Pakistan manage the equitable distribution of resources among different ethnic regions to address historical grievances and promote developments across the country?
7-	In Modern day democracy there must be a Pragmatic Civil-Military relationship to deal all the internal and external security threats. Analyze with reference to the role of Pakistan’s security and stability in South-Asia?
8-	Since Independence, the most critical concern for Internal security is National Integration. Discuss the role of constitutional provisions enabling provincial autonomy and devolution of Power to strengthen National integration in Pakistan?

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