18th Amendment: Youth ministries facing transitional issues

Participants of dialogue unsure if the devolution will happen.

KARACHI:

While discussing challenges being faced by the provincial youth ministries due to the devolution of power from the federal level to the provinces, both bureaucrats and technocrats on Tuesday acknowledged that the issues facing the ministries regarding transfer of fiscal and human resources were only transitional.

These were the views of participants at a dialogue organised by BARGAD, a youth development organisation, and United Nations Population Fund on Tuesday with economist and adviser to the Sindh chief minister Kaiser Bengali in the chair.

During their assessment of the situation, some participants had doubts that the bureaucracy would not let devolution happen.

MPA Khawaja Izharul Hassan voicing his doubts about the 18th Amendments implementation said that, “the devolution process might not happen during the tenure of this government.”

The 18th Amendment devolves federal ministries including the youth affairs to the provinces, giving these smaller units a chance to be autonomous and manage youth affairs. However, it has also given rise to some serious challenges to them.

The participants explained that the provinces were unwilling to take the federal employees because they could not afford their salaries.

Kaiser Bengali being blunt in his assessment of the situation said that the youth ministries had done nothing so far and that they didn’t have anything to show for what they had done.

However, he explained that these ministries did not need very large budgets to do what they needed. He explained that they did not need money for ‘brick and mortar’ projects. And that they could do very well without buildings and that the first and foremost things the youth needed was jobs.

The participants of the dialogue included representatives of the Sindh Youth Ministry, Economic Affairs Division, Provincial Education, Labour and Manpower and Population and Welfare Ministries.



Published in The Express Tribune, June 1^st, 2011.