Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Giving his ruling over a reference, Senate Chairman Mian Raza Rabbani on Tuesday asked the government to frame a policy as to the extent of involvement of international donor/organisation into the internal affairs of the federation, especially its policies and legislations, and to place it before the both Houses of Parliament for approval within a period of two months.

The chairman gave the ruling when he received a reference from the Functional Committee on Devolution of the Senate that sought interpretation of clause (3) of Article 172 of the Constitution, 1973, and as a result of the debate held in the House.

The chairman said that Clause (3) of Article 172 of Constitution, 1973, provided for equal ownership of mineral oil and natural gas within the province or the territorial waters adjacent to a province (fifty percent belonging to the federal and fifty percent to the province) and the federation was required to exercise its authority in the executive, administrative and regulatory sphere jointly and equally with the province.

All decisions, except day-to-day working, pertaining to or related with these matters shall be taken by the Council of Common Interest, (CCI), as this entry falls in Part II of the Federal Legislative List, Constitution, 1973, the ruling concluded.

Adviser to PM on Aviation Mehtab Abbasi briefed the House the performance of PIA. He also assured the house that in the remaining term of the incumbent government, it was impossible to carry out privatisation of national flag carriers. Setting aside the privatisation minister’s statement, the adviser said that it would be better to talk about the improvement in performance of PIA instead of wasting of time over privatisation because it required long period of time. He said the government had engaged private experts to reduce the operational cost of PIA and up to some great extent the losses reduced.

Meanwhile, Minister of State for Capital Administration and Development Division (CAAD) Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry told the House that the government wanted to regularise services of daily wage and contractual teachers and a mechanism was being evolved to remove legal hitches in the process.

Responding over the implementation status of Senate ruling, the minister said that around 900 teachers were working on daily wages and contract in various schools of the capital and their absence would affect students. He said various committees were set up to finalise modalities for the regularisation of the teachers’ services, which, however, did not finalise recommendations.

The minister said currently some 15,000 regular teachers were working in the schools under Federal Directorate of Education (FDE). An amount of Rs2.7 billion was being spent on the renovations of schools while Rs.1.5 billion was specified for provision of school buses.

To a question, Tariq Fazal said 100 per cent provincial quota was also being observed in recruitment of teachers and doctors on contract basis. However, in case of daily wagers, no quota was observed, he added.

He said advertisements for vacant posts were published in national dailies besides displaying it on web-sites of respective institutions. Applications were received for the posts from across the country, he added.

He also said the case for extension of contract of employees working in the Federal General Hospital was forwarded to the Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC). On December 6, 2017, the FPSC accorded approval for six-month extension. Those employees were appointed against regular sanctioned posts that were duly advertised.

Published in Daily Times, January 24^th 2018.