Centre all set for devolution of power

Ministries to be handed to provinces by first week of December, says Raza Rabbani.

ISLAMABAD: The implementation commission on constitutional reforms recommended transferring five federal ministries to the provinces by the first week of December, initiating the process of devolution of power from the centre to the federating units.

The commission, headed by Senator Raza Rabbani, had earlier recommended the cabinet on Saturday to hand over the ministries of local government and rural development, special initiatives, Zakat and Ushr, population welfare and youth affairs to the provinces.

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani has called a special cabinet meeting on December 1 to grant final approval to the proposal. All four chief ministers are expected to participate in the meeting.

The 18th Amendment has set June 30 next year as the deadline for transferring the agreed subjects to the provinces through an implementation commission.

The centre currently has 48 ministries other than the divisions and attached departments which are handled by a battalion of federal and state ministers and advisers. As many as 10 ministries would be transferred to the provinces.

Meanwhile, the government intends to merge some divisions and departments in its effort to reduce the size of government, a major reason cited for bad governance.

“The ministries will be handed over to the provinces by the first week of December,” Raza Rabbani, the chairman of the implementation commission, told The Express Tribune.

The transfer of the ministries may not lessen the fiscal burden of the federal government as the provinces have refused to accommodate about 1,000 surplus employees of these ministries.

“The issue of employees was not decided at the time the 18th Amendment (was adopted) as this was not a constitutional matter,” said Prof Khurshid Ahmed of Jamaat-i-Islami, who was a member of the 27-member constitutional reforms committee.

Secretary Finance Salman Siddique said that if provincial governments do not adjust these employees, the federal government will pay their salaries which will cost about Rs1 billion per year. Initially, these employees will be part of the surplus pool.

He said the 18th Amendment was passed after the Seventh National Finance Commission Award and, therefore, the issue of transferring federal employees was not discussed with the provincial governments.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 28^th, 2010.