Senior politician and former Information Minister Muhammad Ali Durrani announced on August 19 that a draft constitutional amendment seeking the restoration of Bahawalpur province and the creation of Hazara province will be tabled in the National Assembly and Senate in September 2026. The announcement, made at a press conference in Lahore alongside journalist Imran Riaz, marks the most concrete legislative step in the new-provinces debate that has been gathering pace through 2026, and the practical mechanics of the proposed amendment, the votes it would need, and the political resistance it already faces are the parts that determine whether the bill has a realistic path to becoming law.

For Pakistanis who have watched the new-provinces debate for years, the announcement is the first time in this cycle that a specific amendment has been tied to a specific timeline, and the first time in this cycle that a senior politician has explicitly named the two provinces. The bill would need to pass the National Assembly, the Senate, and the relevant provincial assemblies, which is a much higher bar than a simple parliamentary majority, and the path to that supermajority is the part of the story that matters most.

What the bill actually proposes

The proposed amendment has two distinct parts. The first is the restoration of Bahawalpur province, which would be carved out of southern Punjab and would revive the historical princely state that was merged into West Pakistan in 1955 and into Punjab province in 1970. The second is the creation of Hazara province, which would be carved out of the northern part of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and would revive the historical Hazara division. The two provinces together would represent the first major redrawing of Pakistan’s provincial map in more than 50 years.

For Bahawalpur, the case being made is one of historical restoration, demographic weight, and economic under-representation. The southern Punjab region, which includes Bahawalpur, Multan, Dera Ghazi Khan, and the surrounding districts, has long argued that the existing Punjab province is too large and too focused on Lahore, and that the southern districts would be better served by their own provincial government. The Bahawalpur restoration, in particular, has historical resonance that goes beyond the standard new-province argument.

For Hazara, the case being made is geographic and linguistic. The Hazara division, with its distinct Hindko-speaking population and its geography of mountains and valleys, has argued for years that it is administratively and culturally distinct from the rest of KP. The Hazara case has been one of the more persistent of the new-province movements, and the PML-N’s decision to include it in the same amendment reflects a coalition-building strategy across regions.

The constitutional bar

Creating a new province in Pakistan is one of the most demanding constitutional procedures in the country’s legislative system. Article 239 of the Constitution requires that a bill to create a new province must be passed by the National Assembly with a two-thirds majority, by the Senate with a two-thirds majority, and by the provincial assembly of the affected province also with a two-thirds majority. The triple supermajority is the part that has defeated every previous attempt to create new provinces in the country’s history.

For Bahawalpur, the affected province is Punjab, and the Punjab Assembly would need to pass the amendment with a two-thirds majority. The PML-N currently has a commanding majority in the Punjab Assembly, which is the part that makes the Bahawalpur restoration more procedurally feasible than the new-province proposals of the past. The political will within the PML-N, however, is the part that has historically been the obstacle, with senior Punjab-focused leaders sometimes resistant to losing territory and revenue.

For Hazara, the affected province is KP, and the KP Assembly would need to pass the amendment with a two-thirds majority. The PTI, which dominated the last KP government, has historically been cool to the Hazara separation, and the current PTI boycott of the parliamentary process means the political dynamics in KP are less predictable. The Senate vote, which requires a two-thirds majority nationally, is the third procedural hurdle, and the Senate composition makes this a real challenge.

What the resistance looks like

The most visible early resistance to the new-provinces amendment has come from Sindh, where PPP’s Senior Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon has insisted that any province creation must follow the constitutional procedure and must have parliamentary and provincial approval. The PPP position, which is consistent with the party’s historical commitment to provincial autonomy, is a signal that Sindh will not simply acquiesce to a Punjab and KP-led process, and that the Sindh political dynamic is likely to add a layer of complexity to the parliamentary debate.

The other resistance point is the broader question of whether new provinces solve the underlying governance problem, or whether greater devolution within the existing provincial structure could address the same concerns. The Punjab government has already begun moving in this direction, with the Punjab Assembly set to meet on August 21 to consider amendments to the provincial Local Government Act to devolve greater administrative and financial powers to elected local representatives, and with the Punjab cabinet having approved Rs 12.52 billion for long-delayed local government elections.

For Sindh, the broader new-provinces debate is also linked to the long-standing PPP position on Seraiki province in southern Punjab, which Sindh has sometimes been wary of as a precedent that could be used to argue for a separate province within Sindh. The Bahawalpur + Hazara bill, by focusing on Punjab and KP rather than on Sindh, partly addresses this concern, but the political dynamics are likely to remain complex.

What happens next

The next concrete step is the tabling of the draft constitutional amendment in the National Assembly and Senate in September. The bill is expected to be introduced by a coalition of PML-N lawmakers with support from allied parties, and the procedural vote in the National Assembly is the first test of whether the amendment has the numbers. The vote in the Senate is the harder test, given the chamber’s composition, and the votes in the Punjab and KP assemblies are the procedural hurdles that come after the federal votes.

For the broader Pakistani public, the new-provinces debate is the kind of structural question that plays out over years rather than months, and the September tabling is the first concrete step in this cycle. The most useful thing to watch is whether the bill is actually introduced as described, whether the PML-N coalition holds together, and whether the opposition parties signal a willingness to support the amendment. The historical pattern is that such bills are introduced and then stall, and the September date is the first test of whether this cycle is different.

For residents of southern Punjab and the Hazara region specifically, the bill is the most concrete legislative step in their long-running movements, and the next several months will be the period when the practical politics of the amendment play out. The amendment is not yet law, and the path to law is long, but the September tabling is the kind of milestone that turns a long-running movement into a real legislative process.

For the broader Pakistan governance context, our Pakistan government schemes coverage walks through the related federal structure. For the Punjab-specific context, our Punjab housing initiative coverage is useful. For the Balochistan context, our PM Quetta security meeting coverage is related. For the AJK context, our AJK elections coverage is relevant.

Source: Press conference by Muhammad Ali Durrani and Imran Riaz, Lahore (August 19, 2026); PPP Senior Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon press conference, Karachi; Punjab Assembly Secretariat session agenda for August 21, 2026; Constitution of Pakistan Article 239 (Creation of new provinces).