March, 31 2005	Thursday	20 Safar 1426

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ISLAMABAD, March 30: The government intends to create a full-fledged ‘political and provincial affairs division’ in federal establishment to deal with political issues and regional and inter-provincial conflicts, it is learnt. A federal minister would head the new division. So far it has been a practice of the federal government to assign any federal minister additional charge of the portfolio of Inter-provincial Coordination. The cabinet division provides secretariat support.

However, the portfolio is currently vacant and the Inter-Provincial Coordination Committee (IPCC) has not met after May 5, 2004 when Federal Minister Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao had presided over an IPCC meeting. The said meeting had disposed off about 15 agenda items. Mr Sherpao, however, was not given this assignment when Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz formed his cabinet in September last.

Under the rules of business, the prime minister is required to preside over Inter Provincial Conference (IPC) to resolve issues between the federal government and federating units. Usually, PM constitutes an inter-provincial coordination committee to act on his behalf.

The sources said the need for a permanent division for political and provincial affairs had become even more pressing because the constitutional forum of Council of Common Interest (CCI) was practically non-existent for last more than a decade. These sources said the CCI, IPC (or IPCC) have to be reactivated and revived as early as possible, given the piling up of a number of un-resolved political and inter-provincial issues.

Absence of these forums, said the sources, had been resulting in dissatisfaction among the provinces to express their views on provincial matters at some legal and constitutional forum. Some of the major issues which require discussion include construction of new dams, water and irrigation related issues, royalties on oil and gas, national finance commission, devolution of power on a permanent basis and taxation.

The sources said the National Reconstruction Bureau (NRB), on the directives of the prime minister, had already carried out an exercise about performance of the IPCC and implementation and impact of its decisions taken during the last 10 years.

The sources said the parliamentary committee on Balochistan had also attributed emergence of some of the problems to the absence of CCI and IPC. The sources said the cabinet division had been over-burdened over the years and hence a permanent division was being contemplated to specifically deal with political and inter-provincial issues with concentration, prepare cases and convene meetings of the CCI, the IPC or the IPCC when needed.