Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Legislators of the Upper House of Parliament on Thursday claimed that though the government has passed the 18th Amendment under which provinces were given more power, this was merely the case on paper there were people who still wanted to keep more power at the federal level instead of provincial level.

Members of the committee were astonished after a short briefing by Additional Secretary Cabinet Division, who claimed there was not a single body to monitor the devolution process or practical implementation of 18th constitutional amendments. The committee termed the passage of devolution process landmark achievements but regretted that it was never implemented in letter and spirit particularly by the bureaucracy in the federal capital of the country. Provinces could not get any benefits from the devolution process and the devolved ministries were again established with different names. Chairman of the committee said that the PM make decisions over the summary of Cabinet Division and the same division could not interested in transferring power over to provinces under the devolution process. He further said that today, the country was confronting multiple challenges and the main reason failure to properly implement the Constitution of Pakistan. The committee chairman also suggested the government reverse the 18th constitutional amendments if it could not implement it fully.

PPP leader Taj Haider suggested that the government should establish a ministry who worked only for full implementation of the 18th Amendment. Senator Usman Kakar questioned asked who was responsible in matters relating to the devolution process. JUI-F Senator Attur Rehman said there was no ban on the establishment of a new ministry. He said there was a belief that said there should be only four ministries at federal level and the rest should be devolved to provinces.

The committee expressed serious concerns about no one taking responsibility to answer the question raised in the Senate Functional Committee on Devolution. The committee directed the Cabinet Division officials to provide details the total number of federal ministries before and after the 18th Amendment.

Earlier, Additional Secretary Cabinet Division Mir Tariq Zaman told the committee that it was not job of the cabinet division to monitor the implementation of the devolution process. After the passage of 18th Amendment, a cell was established in the Cabinet Division, which deals with matters of 17 devolved ministries, their litigation cases, and assets. The cell worked for one year and after that, there was no one to monitor the devolution process. After devolution, seven new ministries were established to keep contact with international organisations.

Senator Nawabzada Saifullah Khan Magsi was of the view that funding of provinces to some extent might be increased but the fact was that the Balochistan government’s non-developmental budget had increased and developmental budget decreased after the devolution process. In such a situation, Balochistan province could not benefit from the devolution process.