Minister for Privatisation Syed Naveed Qamar, Senator Afrasiab Khattak, Senator Rehmatullah Kakar, Justice (Retd) Raza Muhammad Khan, Abdul Ghafoor Mirza secretaries of cabinet and establishment divisions and officials of the planning and finance division participated in the meeting.
The meeting discussed in detail adjustment of various departments of the five more ministries, education, tourism, social welfare and special education, livestock and dairy development and culture, and finalised their transfer to the provinces in second-phase ie by middle of March 2011.
The meeting also finalised specified items in the Concurrent List pertaining to the ministries of Law and Justice, Interior, Finance, Ports and Shipping, Communications and Revenue Division, which will be devolved in the second phase. The sources said that the Commission also decided to retain the Higher Education Commission with the Federal Government.
If Federal Government wants to keep some departments of these ministries it has to legislate. According to sources, many institutions of the ministries which were being transferred to the provinces would be merged with Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), Planning and Development Divisions and other departments of federal government. In this regards, the sources said the federal government has to legislate and issue notifications. About Ministry of Social Welfare and Special Education, the sources said that 12 institutions of the ministry will be merged with Federal organisations.
According to documents available with Business Recorder, it has been proposed to the Implementation Commission to merge Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal, National Library and Resource Center Islamabad, National Council of Social Welfare (NCSW), The National Institute of Special Education, National Training Center for Special Persons, National Braille Press, The Women Welfare and Development Center, Social Welfare Training Institution, National Trust for the Disabled (NTD), National Council for Rehabilitation of Disabled Persons(NCRDP), Trust for Voluntary Organisations (TVO) and Centres and Institutions of Special Education in Islamabad with Federal organisations.
For this purpose, the federal government has to amend or repeal ordinances, orders and acts issued from time to time. Implementation Commission already has made commitment that no employee would be laid off and that the employees of the devolved ministries in Islamabad will not be dislocated from their present stations.