Pakistan, Sept. 18 -- Every debate about Pakistani governance eventually returns to the same recurring question of how many provinces there should be. The question is not wrong, but it is incomplete. The more important question is where authority sits after the map has been drawn and the budget has been allocated. On that question, Pakistan has followed a consistent pattern for seventy-five years. Authority has travelled downwards, but the journey has never quite finished.

Look at how a citizen actually gets things done. For a land record, he goes to the patwari. For a dispute, to the thana. For anything that stalls, he finds an elected representative who can make a phone call. When a school lacks teachers, the parents reach the local co...