The federal and Punjab governments have locked horns over transfer of Sheikh Zayed Hospital, Sheikh Fatima Institute of Nursing and drugs regulation to Punjab under the 18th Constitutional Amendment, sources told Pakistan Today on Monday. Punjab Chief Secretary Nasir Khosa on June 16 held a meeting with the Inter-Provincial Coordination Committee (IPCC) to sort out various contentious issues regarding the devolution of seven ministries, including health, in the third and final phase of devolution of federal ministries to corresponding provincial departments. Sources in the government revealed that the federal government is not willing to hand over Sheikh Zayed Hospital and Sheikh Fatima Institute of Nursing to the Punjab government, which maintained that the devolution is “partial” without handing overall institutions and subjects.
They said that the federal government is “reluctant” to hand over the hospital and nursing institute because of “big money” involved. Another contentious issue is handing over powers and functions in the Drug Act 1976, which is purely a federal subject. The powers include registering drugs, monitoring pharmaceutical companies and other vital functions. Interestingly, sources said, the federal government wants to hand over the powers, while Punjab is the only province, which has objected to have the federal drugs act devolved to provinces. “The Punjab chief secretary took up this stance considering if the Punjab government does not register a drug and the company gets the same drug registered from another province, there will be no law to stop its sale and marketing in Punjab, hence creating further complications and killing the spirit of the law and the devolution,” sources said. T
he Punjab government also proposed a Federal Drug Regulatory Authority to have a uniform policy on the national level regarding drug registration and regulation while the idea has been “appreciated” by other provinces also and the government is now actually working on the modalities to materialise it, sources said. Several other projects being run and funded by the federal government or the provincial government such as the anti-polio drive and the National Aids Control Programme have been “amicably” resolved, they added.The provincial and federal departments are in correspondence over sorting out the issues as the deadline for the completion of the devolution is June 30.
