ISLAMABAD – The Implementation Commission for the 18th Amendment set a deadline on Thursday to transfer five more ministries to the provinces in the second phase of the devolution process and decided that the Higher Education Commission (HEC) would not be transferred to the provinces. The commission, which met here with Mian Raza Rabbani in the chair, set March 15 as the deadline to transfer the ministries of education, culture, tourism, livestock and special people to the provinces. A source told Pakistan Today that the meeting also reviewed matters relating to the transfer of the buildings, transport, employees and the subsidiary departments of the ministries to the provinces.
The Establishment Division submitted its report to the meeting which stated that employees’ future was at stake because of reluctance by provinces to accommodate and facilitate thousands of employees in the ministry of education and health. The source said a list of all institutions and total number of employees working under the federal Education Ministry was also presented in the meeting.
“The meeting was told that a total of 13,216 educational institutions having 1,463,554 students were working under the Ministry of Education in Islamabad Capital Territory, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan and FATA. The number of employees in these institutions has risen to 79,744 to 61,189 (teaching) and 18,555 (non-teaching), who would be affected because of devolution,” added the source.
The commission is now engaged in the process of devolving five more ministries – that of education, health, social welfare and special education, culture and tourism – to the provinces under the clauses of the 18th Amendment granting provincial autonomy through abolishment of the concurrent list.
Devolution of five ministries by March 15
