THE new setup in KP is taking shape rapidly and quietly. While everyone seems focused on the collective meltdown in the PTI, the province the party ruled until recently is busy setting up a new structure. The governor announced his new advisory council within days, while the emergency-stricken districts have been provided with their own administrative machinery. A special emergency has been declared in the former Fata regions as well as Bannu, Lakki Marwat, Tank, and Dera Ismail Khan. According to the information available in news reports, these regions will now be managed by a new Area Development Secretariat (ADS), which is to be headed by a bureaucrat, Yahya Akhundzada, an additional chief secretary (ACS). It is being reported that he has been given extensive powers akin to those of a cabinet or a provincial government. Along with this, a new council has been formed, consisting of four people from each district to assist him. An additional inspector general (AIG) of police is also part of this council. Most of these members have been selected, with a few refusals; not bad for a week’s worth of work. At the federal level, a committee headed by Ishaq Dar has been formed to supervise the province. Besides Dar, the committee includes several PML-N stalwarts, mostly from Punjab, such as Rana Sanaullah, Azam Nazeer Tarar, and Attaullah Tarar. However, other members include Amir Muqam from KP and Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui from Karachi. At times, the plan appears more ambitious than merely addressing terrorism and governance in KP. In the past week, whispers have been heard around Islamabad; well-informed journalists have also appeared on television and suggested that this setup might decide the future of the other provinces as well. If the technocratic cabinets are able to perform well, there is a chance similar setups may be introduced elsewhere. Faisal Vawda, who, too, has much inside news to share, has suggested or hinted at something similar. This is lent credence by the manner in which the new administration has been installed in KP, where governor’s rule is accompanied by a special setup for the 12 districts; if there were ever to be smaller provinces in the country, these districts could easily take the form of a ‘South Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’ province. At times, the plan appears more ambitious than merely addressing terrorism and governance in KP. Be that as it may, all these ambitious plans — if there are any — will have to wait until the wrinkles are ironed out in KP. I say this because, from the outside, there seems to be a lack of clarity at the moment. There is some confusion about how this new setup will work. After all, not only is there a governor now in charge of the province, but there is also a powerful ADS for southern KP. So, will the ADS report to the governor or directly to the federal government? That is a bit unclear at the moment. This also raises the question of what the ADS’s relationship will be with the provincial bureaucracy. If the ACS and AIG report directly to Islamabad, will this eliminate the need to work with Peshawar entirely? Journalists from the province say the ADS and the federal government will handle development and security directly. This is why the ADS, according to one colleague, is even being given its own set of finance and planning officials. These officials will be part of the new secretariat. But what will happen in matters that do not fall under development and security, such as education and health? That is why some feel that, for the moment, there may still be a need to coordinate with the provincial bureaucracy and thrash out other issues. And if that is the case, it can cause delays and hurdles. After all, red tape and bureaucratic hurdles are routine in the country, but if, in this case, rules need to be figured out or made anew, the delays might be more severe. In addition, as mentioned earlier, there is confusion over how many issues in this special region will go directly to the prime minister or the provincial setup/governor before being routed to the prime minister. While journalists from KP feel the prime minister and Islamabad will deal with all matters directly, the ADR spokesman said in a television interview that the prime minister would handle issues in which the governor and his team could not address the needs of the 12 districts. If the prime minister, or rather the federal government, is to look after every issue, will decision-making power go to the Dar-led committee? It is hard to imagine that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will have the time to look into every matter individually. The prime minister also prefers to manage matters through committees. But how efficient will this prove to be? Of course, the assumption is that decision-making will be quick and efficient because it will take place elsewhere, and the committees we see exist in name only. No doubt, this is always a possibility, but how many governance issues can be managed this way? Development and security decisions can perhaps be handled in this manner, but will there be no other issues? Though one should remain optimistic, I suppose. However, let me venture to say that if this new technocratic setup proves to be successful and efficient, it might just end up increasing centralisation of decision-making, which is far removed from the idea of local government and service delivery at the people’s doorstep. For residents of the 12 districts, Islamabad and cities beyond are much farther away than Peshawar. The writer is a journalist. Published in Dawn, October 20th, 2026