KARACHI: The Council of Common Interest (CCI) is all set to take up the issue of thousands of employees of 17 federal ministries and departments that had been devolved to the provinces after the 18th Amendment to the Constitution for necessary legislation in its meeting scheduled to be held on Feb 10, it emerged on Friday.
These employees, whose future career progression hangs in the balance up till now, are working on deputation in the provinces under Rule 10-A of the Civil Servants Act of 1973.
As the result of the 18th amendment, the concurrent list was abolished in the Constitution and various ministries/departments and organisations were devolved to the provinces. The implementation of the devolution process started in July 2010 and completed on June 30, 2013. However, the issue of absorption of the thousands of employees could not be resolved.
Sources said that although then president Asif Ali Zardari had promulgated an ordinance on May 24, 2013 to amend the Civil Servants Act of 1973 under which the employees were devolved in their respective province on the same terms and conditions, but no legislation was carried out as the tenure of the Pakistan Peoples Party government had ended.
The sources said now the federal government wanted to expedite this process by bringing legislation.
Of the total employees, 3,678 public servants would be absorbed in Sindh, 1,484 in Punjab, 984 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 278 in Balochistan, 134 in Gilgit-Baltistan, 40 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and 2,869 in the federal government.
Since majority of the employees would be adjusted in Sindh, the provincial government may ask the federal government an increase in its share in the National Finance Commission Award, said one official.
According to a summary moved by Establishment Secretary Shahid Rashid to the CCI, the federal cabinet after three meetings in 2010 and 2011 had approved devolution of 17 ministries/divisions in three phases.
Functions of these 17 ministries were devolved to the provinces and the same were abolished in the centre. Employees working on deputation were also transferred to the provinces/regions while the employees working in the Federal Areas were adjusted in other federal ministries/divisions.
“Despite the fact that the provincial governments remained on board in the whole process of devolution, the draft legislation by both federal and provincial governments could not be finalised,” according to the contents of the summary reviewed by Dawn.
It said that the experts of the Implementation Commission (IC) of the 18th amendment were of the considered view that “absorption of these employees in the ministries/divisions/provinces would require special legislation by the federal as well as provincial governments.”
They had prepared two draft legislations, one each for the federal and provincial governments, which were debated by the IC in its meetings but the same could not be finalised.
To expedite the absorption process of the employees, the federal government had promulgated an ordinance on May 24, 2013 and in order to give effect to the provisions of the ordinance, it (the federal govt) has initiated absorption process of employees of devolved ministries/divisions transferred to it.
However, the “absorption process in respect of federal civil servants transferred to provincial governments could not be initiated by the respective provincial governments as the corresponding provincial legislations have not yet been finalised”, said the summary.
As a result, the federal government has been facing “a lot of pressure from devolved employees transferred on deputation under section 10 of the Civil Servants Act, 1973 to the provincial governments in respect of their career progression”, it added.
Though, the organisations transferred to the provinces after the 18th amendment were functioning under the administrative control of the respective province, yet the permanent absorption of the employees and their career progression required provincial legislation, the establishment division’s summary to the CCI said.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif being the minister in charge of the establishment division had authorised the submission of the summary to the CCI meeting to be held on Feb 10 in Islamabad “to consider the issue of provincial legislations for permanent absorption of employees of devolved ministries/divisions posted in the provinces”.