Senate Special Committee on Devolution Process on Monday issued directives to Ministry for Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC) to prepare a draft law to settle lingering issues related to implementation of devolution process under the 18th Constitutional Amendment within ten days.
The committee which met under the chairmanship of Senator Jehangir Badr,
Leader of the House asked the ministry to present the copy of proposed draft law to the committee so that further action on it can be taken in its next meeting.
While briefing the committee, Minster for Inter-Provincial Coordination Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani said that the government was sincere in complete implementation of the devolution process. Earlier the chief secretaries and IPC secretaries of the four provinces gave presentations of the devolution process in their respective provinces. Senator Ishaq Dar said that issues of all the provinces were common and they want transfer of funds to them. Mian Raza Rabbani said that Federal Cabinet had ratified all the decisions taken by the Implementation Commission headed by him. He was of the view that the IPC ministry will have to play proactive role so that hurdles in the implementation process are removed as early as possible. He asked the Parliament to assert itself over the issue of implementation of the 18th amendment in letter and spirit. Senator Afrasiab Khattak said that the provinces should utilize the Council of Common Interests (CCI) forum in a better way and voice their concerns related to implementation of devolution plan. Senator Tahir Mashaddi was of the opinion that it was heartening to note that the bureaucracy present in the meeting was willing to implement the devolution plan in letter and spirit.
Senator Abdul Ghafoor Hyderi said that the 18th amendment was a big achievement of the parliament but due to certain reasons some departments attached with the ministries were not devolved to the provinces.
Secretary IPC Ministry said that devolution plan was great steps but some issues were lingering on so far. He said that Establishment Division has formulated a law to address the issue of the staff sent to provinces under the devolution plan.
On this occasion Senator Ishaq Dar said that as there are four or five issues mentioned by the provincial governments in their presentations. He stressed that IPC ministry should address all the issues in one piece of legislation, so that all the issues could be resolved once for all.
