ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Tariq Fazal Chaudhry announced Thursday that parliamentary debate on the creation of new provinces would be held in October.In a statement, the minister said that the National Assembly and Senate sessions scheduled for that month would provide the appropriate forum for the discussion.He said no sessions of the National Assembly or Senate were being held in September, but that October sessions would facilitate the debate. “The real place for the debate on new provinces is Parliament House,” he said.Clarifying a separate but related matter, Tariq Fazal said Islamabad was not going to become a new province, but was instead moving toward adopting a new governance model. “There has been no talk of making Islamabad a separate province,” he said. reported that a high-level committee had presented Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif with a draft proposal to establish a 27-member elected assembly for Islamabad Capital Territory, complete with a chief executive and 27 administrative departments.The announcement came amid a growing political debate over Pakistan’s governance structure, with ruling allies Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) appearing divided over the creation of new administrative units or provinces.The debate was ignited in July by Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, who said the country’s governance system had “collapsed” and called for fundamental reforms, arguing Pakistan should move toward new administrative units with greater powers devolved to lower levels.He later stood by his assessment that the system had been “completely destroyed”, while clarifying he was referring to its deterioration over the past 80 years rather than any particular government.