Provincial Marginalisation and the Myth of National Unity: CPEC’s Impact on Intergovernmental Relations in Pakistan

Abstract

The paper is a critical discussion of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which has been over the years being marketed as a key driver of national development but, ironically, seems to have further marginalized the provinces in Pakistan and raised the level of intergovernmental conflict in the country. The analysis, based on a qualitative approach to the topic and close examination of policy documents, statements made by authoritative figures, and available literature, places CPEC in the context of deep-rooted center-province tensions and specifically examines the experience of Balochistan and Sindh. The fact suggests that instead of stimulating a sense of national unity, the centralized system of governance and the lack of transparency in decision-making linked to CPEC has solidified the discourse of federal pre-eminence and unequal resource allocation. In addition, the paper reveals that provincial views have continued to be pushed to the periphery of not only the planning but also the execution phases, thus fueling the already existing resentments and undermining the foundations of cooperative federalism. The work advocates strongly in favor of the use of a more inclusive, transparent intergovernmental regime that would support equitable development and enhance political stability in a federation traditionally characterized by fragmentation by unraveling the mythos of national unity promoted in the discourse of CPEC.