ISLAMABAD – The second phase of ministries’ devolution will be completed by March 30 in which other five ministries are planned to be devolved to the provinces under 18th amendment, said Establishment Division secretary on Thursday. “We are hopeful that the second phase of devolution will be completed by March 30 and, in this connection, a meeting will be held on March 26 to finalise all formalities,” said Secretary Abdur Rauf Chaudhry while briefing Senate Standing Committee on Cabinet Division. He said the final meeting will follow a special cabinet meeting to give its nod on second phase of devolution.
In this phase, he said five ministries including ministries of education, special education, livestock, tourism and culture would be devolved. By the devolution of these ministries, around 7,500 employees would be affected, he said, adding that a strategy had been finalised to save their livelihood. He said the employees of the already devolved ministries had been put on deputation until they were absorbed in their relevant departments. Rauf Chaudhry informed the committee that after the completion of second phase, third phase would follow in which around 27,000 employees would be affected. He said the institutes working under the purview of these ministries would be given to the provinces in their existing forms and added the provinces had also agreed to record seniority of their employees separately to avoid any litigation by the people already working in provinces.
He added a joint session would precede the third phase in which a resolution would be adopted asking the provinces not to slash any privileges being enjoyed by the employees of the would-be devolved ministries. The committee taking notice of the absence of Cabinet Secretary Nargis Sethi, in protest dropped a relevant agenda item on status of inquiry report of collapse of Margalla Towers by the PM’s Inspection Commission. The meeting was attended by senators Fauzia Fakhar-uz-Zaman, Kulsoom Parveen, Begum Najma Hameed, Dr Saeeda Iqbal, Shirala Malick, Rehana Yahya Baloch, Dr Safdar Ali Abbasi, Dr Khatu Mal and Capital Development Authority (CDA) acting chairman.
