At last, after over 60 years, the political government has been able to decide about the federal and provincial subjects of concurrent list and the provinces have been given the maximum subjects. The federal government will now control only five subjects; finance, defense, foreign affairs, communications and revenue. All other subjects such as education, social welfare, special education, tourism, special initiatives, population planning, local government, rural development, zakat and usher, youth affairs, live stock, dairy development, culture, food and agriculture, sports, women development, minorities’ affairs, manpower, environment and health will be provincial responsibilities.
All provinces have been demanding autonomy for decades. The centralised decision making and centralised control over provinces’ resources were the main causes of resentment against the federation. There are still some issues to be wrapped up, such as transfer of assets of the devolved ministries and ownership of federal government of hospital, colleges and organisations in provinces related to agriculture and food are still under the control of federal government.
In democratic countries of the world, the power has been delegated to the gross root level for efficient functioning of the state as it ensures involvement of the people in the decision making at local level. It is imperative that the provincial government should now hold elections for the local government because without the fully functional and operative local government system, the devolution will not be able to make any difference in the country and the fruits of provincial autonomy will not reach to the people.
S T HUSSAIN
Lahore
