Post-devolution: Prime Minister yet to decide fate of 18 education bodies

Devolution of CADD put on the backburner, say sources

ISLAMABAD: Though the 18th Constitutional Amendment was passed by Parliament in 2010, the federal capital is still coping with its aftershocks wherein the devolved subjects have become an apple of discord among the many ministries and divisions.

The prime minister has yet to approve the proposal to hand over 18 different bodies to the education ministry which was decided in December last year during a secretaries-level meeting.

The secretaries’ committee on December 18, 2014 formed a body to work out the issue. The four-member body comprised secretaries of ministries of inter-provincial coordination (IPC), capital administration and development division (CADD), education, and the planning division.

Besides, sources in the Cabinet Division have hinted that the devolution of the CADD has also been put on the backburner by the government for the time being.

The Ministry of Education and Professional Training was likely to regain control of those education-related subjects but the prime minister is yet to take action.

The ministry has been demanding control of 22 bodies since the arrival of the Minister of State for Federal Education and Professional Training Balighur Rehman. The subjects were handed over to other divisions when education was devolved to the provinces after the 18th Amendment.

The sub-committee in January agreed to hand over most of the subjects such as the National Book Foundation, girl guides and boy scouts associations, youth activities, and welfare of Pakistani students abroad, to the education ministry, while education attaché offices at Pakistani missions abroad were to remain with the IPC Division.

The federal education ministry was re-established in November 2011 after the Supreme Court maintained that the government could not absolve itself of the responsibility of providing education under Article 25-A.

Issues arising from the devolution of education remain unresolved, with the ministry itself having been renamed four times in four years.

Other subjects waiting to be handed over include Federal College of Education, Department of Libraries, and functions such as international exchange of students and teachers, and the National Institute of Scientific and Technical Education. The subjects are with the Cabinet Division, the IPC Division, the CADD and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs respectively.

The education ministry’s additional secretary, Allah Baksh Malik, told The Express Tribune that they were waiting for approval from the premier and then the bodies would be formally handed over to them.

Another official commented that they were uncertain about the hand over of those subjects as the government had turned down a proposal of Rs1 billion for education reforms in the capital in this year’s budget.

In April this year, the Cabinet Committee on Restructuring of the federal ministries and divisions also recommended abolishing the CADD and handing over education and health subjects to the concerned ministries.

Cabinet Division officials privy to the development say for the time being the government is not considering devolution of the CADD.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 10^th, 2015.