Devolution to cost Sindh over Rs40m

Karachi

The first meeting of the Provincial Implementation Committee on Thursday was informed that around Rs40 million was required to oversee the devolution process in Sindh, it was learnt by The News.

The services of law consultants, financial analysts, human resources managers and other such experts would be required at the proposed cell, to be established at the Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC) Department, to examine the working papers of the departments and submit their recommendations to the PIC.

Meanwhile, the Chief Secretary of Sindh, Fazal-ur-Rehman, who chaired the meeting, asked the secretaries of law, finance and inter-provincial coordination departments to prepare the methodology for identifying the subjects that were to be devolved to the provincial government.

Fazal-ur-Rehman also asked them to coordinate with all the provincial administrative secretaries and also suggest organizational set up to implement the devolution process.

The IPC Secretary, Mushtaq Ahmed Sheikh, who is also the secretary of the PIC, informed the participants that the PIC had been constituted for overseeing the devolution process.

He said that all the departments had been instructed to assess the financial implications of devolution.

He said that the departments had also been asked to review all the laws, rules and regulations being affected as a consequence of this transition and also review the existing administrative structure and suggest changes and to identity moveable/immovable properties, assets and human resources for this transfer to the provincial government.

Sheikh informed the PIC meeting that 47 subjects would be devolved to the provinces and 24 departments would be affected for which laws, rules, regulations, policies, financial mechanism and administrative structures were needed.

He said that the PIC, with the chief secretary as its chairman and the secretaries of IPC, law, finance and services and general administration and coordination department as members had been constituted while a committee to be led by the cabinet members was being formed. He added that 16 departments had furnished their working papers so far.