ISLAMABAD:
The Senate’s oversight body on implementation of the 18th Constitutional Amendment on Monday directed the federal government to close about two dozen ministries and departments and transfer another one dozen bodies to the Council of Common Interests (CCI) within two weeks.
The sub-committee of the Senate’s Functional Committee on Devolution also instructed the federal government to reconstitute the CCI, share the media broadcasting rights with provinces and stop regulating the print media in line with the constitutional scheme.
It also barred the federal government from privatising the power distribution companies (DISCOs), saying these entities belonged to the provinces under the Constitution.
PPP Senator Zamir Hussain Ghumro chaired the meeting, attended by bureaucrats from the ministries of power, information, provincial departments and the CCI, the constitutional body mandated to have decision-making authority over subjects under the control of the provinces and the Centre.
Unlike a standing committee, Ghumro said the Functional Committee’s instructions are binding on the government and the Cabinet Division should provide the first implementation report after 15 days.
The instructions, which the government is expected to resist, came amid discussion over the need to create new provinces or administrative units to improve service delivery.
We are a continuation of the Implementation Commission, which issued directives and we can send the matter to the Privilege Committee under the Members of Parliament (Powers, Privileges and Immunities) Act 2014, Ghumro said.
The Senate Functional Committee is an extension of the upper house to safeguard the constitutional balance between the federation and the federating units and is a permanent parliamentary oversight body of the Senate of Pakistan.
The committee chairman said the federal government’s expenditures have grown to Rs19 trillion, which need to be cut down to Rs13 trillion by closing ministries, departments and bringing the government in line with the constitutional arrangement.
The ministries the panel wants closed are health, education, national food security, water resources, climate change, housing, special initiatives, culture and heritage, railways, industries, statistics, petroleum, inter-provincial coordination, narcotics and planning and development.
The departments include Evacuee Trust Board, Zakat and Ushur, Naya Pakistan Housing Authority, EOBI, Police Service of Pakistan, PMDC, Korangi Fish Harbor, Press Information Department, SIDCL and the Water and Power Development Authority.
The panel observed that these ministries have been retained to accommodate a member of parliament and a federal secretary, which puts an enormous burden in the shape of debt taken to run these ministries.
“The system needs to be reset but the solution offered is unconstitutional,” said the chairman, referencing Federal Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi’s July 31 statement calling for the creation of new federating units or provinces.
He said the armed forces rightly raised the voice that they won the war against India and brought diplomatic success to Pakistan but these successes have not translated into benefits for the common people.
The sub-committee also directed that the matter of DISCOs’ privatisation be sent to the CCI as per the Supreme Court’s judgment in the Mian Nawaz Sharif case in 1993. The chairman said provinces should preferably take ownership of the DISCOs.
The committee ruled that any privatisation of DISCOsIESCO, FESCO, LESCO, GEPCO, SEPCO, and HESCOby the Power Division or the Privatisation Commission without the CCI’s consent directly violates Articles 154 and 157 of the Constitution.
The committee also observed that many regulatory bodies and authorities are unlawfully placed under the control of the Cabinet Division.
It directed that key entitiesincluding railways, port authorities, planning and development authorities, and regulatory agenciesmust be handed over to the CCI rather than the federal cabinet.
The committee rejected the federal government’s reliance on the 1997 Supreme Court Gadoon Amazai ruling, noting that Parliament resolved issues regarding CCI meeting frequency by legally requiring the CCI to convene at least once every three months or earlier in urgent matters.
The committee directed that CCI matters shall not be taken up in the federal cabinet because the Constitution bars it. The prime minister must take up such matters in the CCI as they badly affect the rights of provinces and call frequent CCI meetings.
The chairman said the CCI shall be reconstituted ensuring equality of provinces. The CCI shall supervise and control the prices of electricity, petroleum, gas, and medicines, as the cabinet’s executive authority is subject to the Constitution which grants this power to the CCI.
It disapproved of the federal government for retaining authority over subjects belonging to provincial domains and Part II of the Federal Legislative Listsuch as railways, petroleum, electricity, ports, and regulatory bodies like OGRA, NEPRA, PEMRA, and PTA etc.
It said these matters fall under the purview of the CCI under Article 154 of the Constitution and emphasised that federal cabinet interference in these domains violates Article 97 read with Article 154 of the Constitution.
Omar Rasool, the secretary of the CCI Secretariat, said he had no objections to the instructions given by the Functional Committee and stated that the federal government should be run according to the constitutional scheme.
The Functional Committee also observed that the Ministry of Information was unlawfully regulating the print media and had not yet shared the broadcasting rights with the provinces.
Press Information Department Director General Ashiq Sheikh said the provinces have not yet requested the federal government to share these broadcasting rights.
The committee directed that the regulation of print media matters be passed on to the provinces. The committee asked the information ministry to provide details of advertisement releases to newspapers and channels for the last three years.
The committee also criticized the practice of withholding government advertisements to pressure media outlets like Dawn. Senior officials from all relevant departments attended the committee meeting.
