What this project is looking to do
Pakistan’s administrative map affects representation, public services, economic planning, regional identity, and how far government sits from everyday life. Redraw Pakistan gives people a structured way to explore alternative arrangements without drawing arbitrary freehand borders. Participants begin with the current map, move complete districts between units, create provinces or federal territories, and optionally explain the principles behind their choices.
Redraw Pakistan does not look for one “correct” answer. It creates a common structure for drawing, explaining, and comparing different ideas.
How it works
- Understand Pakistan’s current top-level administrative structure.
- Name a proposal and decide how many administrative units it should contain.
- Reassign existing districts, or split and merge units, using the interactive map.
- Add optional rationales and review population, area, and district statistics.
- Download the map and report privately, or sign in and request publication in the moderated gallery.
What the project hopes to learn
Completed designs can reveal patterns that are difficult to see in a conventional survey: how many provinces participants tend to create, which districts are repeatedly grouped together, where current boundaries are most often changed, when people prefer federal administration, and which administrative, cultural, economic, geographic, or political reasons appear most often.
These patterns describe people who choose to use the platform. They do not represent the views of Pakistan’s population as a whole and should not be treated as election results, scientific polling, or proof that one map is correct.
Neutrality and territorial presentation
The project is independent and non-partisan. It does not campaign for a particular number of provinces or endorse a political party, ethnic arrangement, constitutional model, or territorial claim. Existing geographic records are used as a functional starting point. Displayed labels and boundaries are accompanied by source notes and do not imply a political or legal endorsement.
Data and sources
The interactive layer currently uses district boundaries from the Pakistan Common Operational Dataset distributed through OCHA’s Humanitarian Data Exchange. Population figures use available Pakistan Bureau of Statistics 2023 Census district data, and land area is calculated from the geographic records. Coverage and naming can change over time, so source years and limitations remain visible in the builder and reports.
Private creation and public participation
No account is required to create a map or download an image or PDF. Completed designs may contribute to de-identified aggregate analysis, as explained before completion. Public gallery display is a separate choice: the creator must sign in, grant permission, and pass moderation. Public attribution is anonymous unless the creator chooses a display name.
There is no single expected answer
The value of the project is in making trade-offs visible. A useful proposal is not merely a colourful map; it is an invitation to compare different ideas about administration, representation, connection, identity, and development.
Create your map →