July 15, 2003	Tuesday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 14, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, July 14: Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali has revived the Inter-Provincial Coordination Committee (IPCC) to create uniformity of policies between the federal and provincial governments and speed up the process of projects implementation.

The committee reactivated after 44 months would be led by Federal Minister for Inter-provincial Coordination Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao, a senior government official told Dawn on Monday.

Provincial chief ministers would be permanent members of the body while federal minister in-charge of the subject, that would come up for discussion before the committee, would be treated as a member and extended a special invitation, the official said.

He said the prime minister secretariat on Monday communicated the terms of reference (TOR) of the IPCC to the provincial chief ministers and federal ministries and divisions.

The IPCC’s revival would expedite the process of discussions on the national finance commission award which has been lingering on for a long time now, the sources said.

During the Nawaz government, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan led the IPCC which remained suspended during the three-year military rule.

The sources said the body was revived to dispel the growing impression that the federal and provincial governments were working in different directions and lacked uniformity in policies.

President Pervez Musharraf has criticized the policies of the NWFP government in his recent public meetings as the government believed that no federating unit should be allowed to function in isolation, said these sources.

Some donors had stopped funding development projects in the NWFP, which was obviously a cause of concern for the federal government, they added.

The sources said the focus of the IPCC would be to speed up projects implementation during the early period of the fiscal year so that budgetary allocations could be properly used for the completion of projects well in time.

According to the terms of reference issued by the prime minister secretariat, the IPCC would discuss general coordination between the federal government and the provinces in economic, social and administrative fields.

The committee will work for promoting uniformity of approach in formulation of policies and their implementation by the provinces and the federal government in all fields of national concern.

It will hold discussions on policy issues that have economic, social or administrative implications for the country as a whole.

The IPCC will coordinate with the ministries and agencies concerned to evolve suitable response to the criticism of government policies, programmes and actions and project a proper image of the government.

The committee will also have the powers to discuss any other issue referred to it by a province or any of the ministries or division of the federal government for consideration.

The sources said the IPCC would begin its meetings by the end of this month and would continuously remain in session for many days to cover all the issues which may have any importance from inter-provincial or federal-provincial point of view.

The IPCC is seen as a means of bypassing the Council of Common Interest, which is practically non-existent at the moment, and did not meet for more than a decade now.