ISLAMABAD, May 6: The federal minister for education, Zubaida Jalal, has called for upbeat coordination among education, health, and social welfare and population ministries for effective delivery of public services at grassroots level.

She was presiding over a meeting of the Social Sector Coordination Committee of the Cabinet here on Thursday. "All the social sector ministries and divisions of the federal government have to devise a mechanism for more inter- ministerial coordination so that effective delivery of public services can be ensured," the education minister said.

The meeting was attended by health minister Mohammad Nasir Khan, advisor to the prime minister on women development Nilofar Bakhtiar, state minister for culture and youth affairs Rais Munir Ahmed, parliamentary secretary for population welfare Dr Donyia Aziz, and provincial secretaries.

Ms Jalal urged the provincial representatives to be receptive and proactive, as the federal government would always facilitate the developmental activities initiated by them.

She also proposed frequent meetings between the federal divisions and the provincial stakeholders for comprehensive delivery of public services. At present, she said, there were many bottlenecks in the delivery system of services as the funds which flowed from centre to the provinces and then to district governments could not be timely utilized due to absence of an effective coordination and consultation system.

The minister said utility of devolution plan would only be felt by the masses, if there were strong linkages between federal government and the districts through the provinces.

She also told the participants that the role of the federal ministries had been reduced only to that of supervisor, facilitator and resource mobilizer for the provinces as well as the districts.

Ms Jalal said the federal government would not interfere in provincial matters, and respect the provincial rights and privileges as enshrined in the Constitution.

In this regard, she cited the example of the federal ministries of finance and education that enjoyed good working relations with the provinces, as they frequently called the meetings of the provincial stakeholders concerned.

She also proposed that for the timely implementation of the government polices and plans at the district level, the provinces along with the districts concerned should play a role of implementation broker so that people could be benefited.

The federal government, she said, would always support the recommendations of the district executives for inter-provincial harmony. The minister also proposed an effective monitoring and evaluation system among all the federal ministries and the districts for efficient delivery of public service.

During the meeting, the federal secretaries for health, education, local government and rural development, social welfare and women development highlighted the role of their ministries and the pace of projects they had initiated in the districts.