By Awais Saleem, IANS,
Islamabad: The federal government in Pakistan transferred five ministries to the provinces Tuesday in the first phase of the devolution plan agreed in the 18th amendment of the country’s constitution invoked in July this year.
The ministries are of: Local Government and Rural Development, Population Welfare, Zakat and Ushar, Youth Affairs, and Special Initiatives.
The federal government has handed over lists of employees while the finance ministry will take care of the budgetary details, Dunya TV reported.
Under the plan, as many as 3,700 employees of the federal government have now been placed in the surplus pool and will now be placed in different attached departments, the channel said. The provinces had refused to accommodate these employees without provision of extra funds.
The future of federal ministers, parliamentary secretary and chairpersons of the standing committees of the National Assembly and the Senate, dealing with these departments, now hangs in balance. Another five federal ministries will be devolved in the second phase by the end of December 2010.