The Pakistani military establishment and the political leadership of Sindh, spearheaded by President Asif Ali Zardari and his party the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), remain deeply divided over the contentious issue of provincial restructuring and the proposed administrative separation of Karachi.

This widening rift carries the dangerous potential to trigger the disintegration of Pakistan, threatening a repetition of the 1971 birth of Bangladesh. A catastrophic, unprecedented genocidal pogrom is feared if the stubborn military establishment remains bent on hacking the country’s historic provinces into over a dozen pieces. To mask this dismemberment, the establishment labels these fractured territories “Administrative Units”. In reality, they would function as the new provinces of a severely diminished Pakistan—assuming the state could even survive such a drastic, forced “surgery”.

The division of provinces under the banner of restructuring has long been a dream of the Pakistani military establishment. Critics argue it stems from a lust for centralized power aimed at subjugating Pakistan’s distinct nationalities and sub-nationalities, whose lands are rich in natural resources and earth minerals. This mindset echoes the infamous words of former Army Chief General Tikka Khan—notoriously dubbed the “Butcher of Bengal and Balochistan” for commanding brutal military operations in former East Pakistan and Balochistan—who reportedly declared: “We don’t want the people of Bengal, but the land of Bengal.” Historically, the military establishment has viewed Pakistan not for its people, but as prime real estate, leading to the widespread critique that the country’s generals operate more like real estate agents than defenders of the nation.

This exploitation dates back to the very inception of the state. Barely a year after Pakistan’s creation, Karachi was administratively separated from the rest of Sindh and annexed as the federal capital. When the then-Chief Minister of Sindh, Ayub Khuhro, fiercely opposed this separation and defended the geographical integrity of his province, he was abruptly removed from office and sent to jail.

Karachi remained separated even after the capital was later shifted to Islamabad. While popular folklore........

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