Will the election deliver federalism?

Tomorrow’s ballot may change centre’s faces, but federalism is not ensured by electoral arithmetic alone.

For the past few years, Kantipur Media Group has been organising dialogue programmes on a wide range of political, economic and social issues. These forums have included sessions with the Chief Ministers (CMs) of provinces. In one such session, a metaphor was used: The provinces lack both the sanduk and the banduk . Sanduk , a money box, symbolises adequate fiscal resources, while banduk , a gun, represents police authority. Although the Constitution grants provinces the authority over policing, the federal government has yet to operationalise the provincial police structure fully.