Social welfare: Punjab accepts ministry’s buildings, but not its staff

Employees stuck in limbo, services to special needs children hampered

ISLAMABAD: The Punjab government appears to be quite selective in its implementation of the 18th Amendment to the Constitution that devolved more powers to the provinces: while it is happy to accept control over the buildings and property owned by the formerly Federal Ministry of Social Welfare and Special Education, it has yet to fully absorb that ministry’s employees in the province, going so far as to deny some of its recent retirees their pensions.

“The Punjab government has practically refused to accept thousands of those employees who were supposed to have been absorbed into the provincial government,”  a senior official of the Directorate General of Special Education in Islamabad told The Express Tribune, requesting anonymity.



The Ministry of Social Welfare and Special Education was one of five ministries that were devolved to the provinces after the landmark amendment to the Constitution in 2010 that resulted in significantly more financial and political autonomy for the provinces. All provinces except Punjab have already absorbed the employees of that federal ministry into their own departments.

The Punjab government is still paying their salaries, but at levels that are lower compared to their former federal salaries. It is also not providing them with any allowances customarily drawn by provincial government employees, since it has not recognised them as its regular employees.

In addition, employees who retired after 2011, the year the ministry was officially devolved, have not been getting their pensions.

However, the Punjab government appears happy to take over the buildings of the ministry in the province.

Senator Pervaiz Rashid said that the province is implementing the 18th Amendment in letter and in spirit. “Punjab has recognised the reality of the 18th Amendment,” he told The Express Tribune.

“The provincial government is fully aware of the problems being faced by the employees that were transferred to them by the federal government under the devolution plan.

There are plans in place to absorb the employees into the government’s existing departments. The Punjab government is committed to fulfill our constitutional obligations and is bound to ensure the welfare of its employees.” The problems facing the employees of the ministry appear to be having real impact on the people who benefit from their services.

For instance, the National Special Education Center in Lahore’s Johar Town has been closed for the last four months because the employees who were involved in driving special needs children to and from school are stuck in a limbo between federal and provincial employment.

The operations of another 25 centres for medical treatment and rehabilitation for physically handicapped children that were transferred to the Punjab government also appear to be suffering.

These locations include a centre for speech therapy for deaf and dumb children, a centre for visually impaired children, a centre for those with hearing impairments, and an orthopedic centre for children with disabilities of the limbs and other physical disabilities.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 2^nd, 2015.