Equitable Distribution of Resources: CSS Solved Answer

Exam question: CSS 2024, Q6: How should Pakistan manage the equitable distribution of resources among different ethnic regions to address historical grievances and promote developments across the country?

Syllabus topic: Topic XVI of the CSS Pakistan Affairs syllabus.

Short answer

Outline for quick revision

Introduction
Historical Grievances: East Pakistan; Balochistan; Sindh; Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the merged districts; Within provinces
The Existing Framework: The NFC Award; Constitutional resource rights; Federal development spending
How Pakistan Should Manage Equitable Distribution: Fiscal measures; Development measures; Political and institutional measures
Conclusion

Reference colours:
Quotation / documentPersonality / historySyllabus bookCurrent referenceOfficial report / policy

1. Introduction

Few issues have shaped Pakistan’s unity as much as the distribution of resources among its regions. The sense that East Pakistan’s jute earnings were spent in the West, that Balochistan’s gas lit up other provinces first, and that Sindh does not receive its share of Indus water has fed grievances and, at times, separatism.

The question asks “how” Pakistan should manage equitable distribution, so after explaining the grievances and the current framework, this answer gives the main weight to a strategy. Its argument is that equity means sharing according to need and contribution, not only population, and that resources must reach people and districts, not just provincial capitals.

Official report / policy: Pakistan’s first official Multidimensional Poverty Index (Ministry of Planning with UNDP and OPHI, June 2016) found that about 39% of Pakistanis were multidimensionally poor, but 71% in Balochistan and 73% in the former FATA, against 49% in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 43% in Sindh and 31% in Punjab; rural poverty (54.6%) far exceeded urban poverty (9.3%).

2. Historical Grievances

East Pakistan

The perception of economic exploitation, foreign exchange earned in the East but development spent in the West, was a major cause of the separation of 1971. East Pakistan separated because of political exclusion, economic disparity and Indian military intervention, not because Bengali Muslims rejected their Muslim identity. Bangladesh did not merge with India; it became a second Muslim-majority sovereign state, which is consistent with the original plural “States” of 1940.

Balochistan

Gas was discovered at Sui in 1952 and supplied to other provinces long before most of Balochistan received it; disputes over royalties, jobs in projects such as Gwadar and Saindak, and control of minerals continue.

Official report / policy: The Aghaz-e-Huqooq-e-Balochistan package, presented to a joint sitting of Parliament on 25 November 2009, promised 5,000 new jobs, Rs 120 billion of gas development surcharge arrears, a halt to new cantonments, a stake for the province in Gwadar and political dialogue, but implementation fell far short.

Sindh

Sindh complains of short supply of Indus water under the 1991 Water Accord, opposes new dams and canals upstream, and objects to under-representation in federal jobs.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the merged districts

KP demands its full share of hydroelectric profits from its dams and the promised funds for the former FATA, devastated by war.

Current reference: The 11th NFC held its first meeting on 4 December 2025; Khyber Pakhtunkhwa demanded its unpaid share for the merged former FATA districts. A month earlier, the PPP had rejected proposals in the draft 27th Amendment to alter the provinces’ NFC share or reverse 18th-Amendment devolution, and they were dropped (November 2025).

Within provinces

Southern Punjab, interior Sindh and northern Balochistan feel neglected by their own provincial capitals, inequality exists within provinces as much as between them.

3. The Existing Framework

The NFC Award

The 7th NFC Award introduced multiple criteria, including poverty and inverse population density, and raised the provinces’ share to 57.5%; the 18th Amendment protects this share from being reduced.

Official report / policy: Under the 7th NFC Award (agreed at Gwadar, December 2009), the provinces’ share of the divisible pool rose to 57.5%, and for the first time it was divided not only by population (82%) but also by poverty and backwardness (10.3%), revenue collection and generation (5%) and inverse population density (2.7%), a major gain for Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Constitutional resource rights

Articles 158, 161 and 172(3) give provinces priority in gas use, royalties and hydel profits, and joint ownership of oil and gas.

Official report / policy: The 18th Amendment (April 2010), passed unanimously, abolished the Concurrent List and devolved its subjects to the provinces, removed the President’s power to dissolve the National Assembly (Article 58(2) (b)), renamed NWFP as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, strengthened the Council of Common Interests, barred any reduction of the provinces’ NFC share, and added new rights such as free education for children aged 5-16 (Article 25A) and the right to information (Article 19A).

Federal development spending

The Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP), CPEC projects and special packages for Balochistan and the merged districts are meant to reduce regional gaps, but their distribution has often been political.

4. How Pakistan Should Manage Equitable Distribution

Fiscal measures

A fair, consensual NFC Award

Agree the next NFC Award by consensus in the Council of Common Interests, increasing the weight of poverty, backwardness and area alongside population, and adding incentives for provinces to raise their own revenue.

Syllabus book: Katharine Adeney, Federalism and Ethnic Conflict Regulation in India and Pakistan (2007), argues that India’s multi-unit, power-sharing federation contained ethnic conflict, while Pakistan’s centralisation, One Unit, parity and military rule, alienated the Bengalis and the smaller provinces.

Provincial Finance Commissions

Each province should establish a Provincial Finance Commission that passes funds on to districts by a transparent, need-based formula, so that southern Punjab, interior Sindh and remote Balochistan receive their share.

Honour resource rights

Pay royalties, gas development surcharge and hydel profits on time and in full, clear historical arrears, and give producing districts a fixed share of their own resource revenues.

Development measures

Targeted development of lagging regions

Direct a larger share of federal and CPEC spending to the poorest districts, guided by poverty and human development data rather than political bargaining.

Current reference: By April 2026, the 75th anniversary of Pakistan-China relations, CPEC had brought $25.93 billion of investment, created over 261,000 jobs, added more than 8,000 MW of power and over 510 km of roads (The News, 22 April 2026).

Principles of equitable distribution

Need: poverty, backwardness, area
Contribution: resources produced, revenue collected
Performance: results in health, education, revenue

Reserve jobs, training and contracts in projects such as Gwadar, Reko Diq and Thar coal for local people, and invest part of the revenues in local schools, hospitals and water.

Current reference: Reko Diq in Chagai, Balochistan, one of the world’s largest undeveloped copper-gold deposits, is a $6.6 billion project (Barrick Gold 50%, federal and provincial governments 50%). In 2025 the ADB approved a $410 million package; first production had been targeted for 2028, at 200,000 tonnes of copper a year. But in April 2026 Barrick slowed development and extended its review to mid-2027, citing worsening security, proof that insecurity can stall even Pakistan’s biggest projects.

Human development first

Close regional gaps in education and health, especially for girls, because human capital is the resource that lasts longest.

Current reference: Pakistan still has more than 25.37 million children aged 5-16 out of school, the Federal Education Minister told the National Assembly in May 2026. Sir Syed’s mission of educational uplift remains unfinished.

Political and institutional measures

Strengthen the CCI and IRSA

Resolve disputes over water, gas and the census in the Council of Common Interests and make the Indus River System Authority transparent, with telemetry to measure flows.

Fair representation

Enforce provincial quotas in federal jobs and ensure that smaller provinces are represented in decision-making bodies.

Dialogue with aggrieved groups

Combine development with political dialogue, especially in Balochistan, where grievances over missing persons and security operations must be addressed alongside economic ones.

Current reference: On 3 September 2024, BNP chief Sardar Akhtar Mengal resigned from the National Assembly, calling it a vote of no confidence in the system and complaining that Balochistan’s issues were ignored and blacked out, a sign of how nationalist parties feel excluded from mainstream politics.

5. Conclusion

Unequal distribution of resources has been one of the deepest causes of Pakistan’s regional grievances, from East Pakistan in 1971 to Balochistan, Sindh and the merged districts today. Pakistan already has a strong constitutional framework in the NFC, the 18th Amendment and provincial resource rights; the task now is to make it work fairly. A consensual, need-based NFC Award, Provincial Finance Commissions, full payment of resource rights, targeted development of lagging districts, local benefit from mega-projects and political dialogue can turn resources from a source of grievance into a foundation of national unity.

Equitable Distribution of Resources: CSS 2024 Solved Answer