ISLAMABAD, June 23: The National Reconstruction Bureau (NRB) on Thursday asked the federal government to start fiscal and administrative decentralization to provinces with transfer of certain taxes and services to them in addition to all the responsibilities defined in part-II of the federal legislative list.
It also proposed placing federal corporations like Wapda, OGDCL, Railways, industries and all the regulatory bodies like Nepra and Ogra under the permanent secretariat of the Council of Common Interest (CCI), which should be headed by an independent secretary-general.
NRB chairman Danyal Aziz presented the proposals before the top legal and political leadership of the federal government in the form of a comprehensive package to create harmony and respect between the centre and provinces and to kick-start the second phase of the devolution plan — devolution of fiscal and administrative powers from centre to the provinces.
The meeting, presided over by chairman of parliamentary committee on Balochistan Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, was attended by the government’s chief legal adviser Sharifuddin Pirzada, leader of the house in Senate Wasim Sajjad and Senator Mushahid Hussain.
“We raised certain queries over some of the proposals to which the NRB would get back to us within a fortnight to proceed further,” Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain told reporters after the meeting.
Danyal Aziz said the measures of integration should result in people being empowered and self-resourced.
He said debate should also be started in the assembly to revise rules of business under Article 99 of the constitution and it should be clearly stated in each rule under which article of the constitution it has been derived.
Mr Aziz said the meeting was also proposed to launch national finance commission award, devolve certain taxes to the provinces and define powers of the CCI. He said the CCI should have a separate secretariat led by a secretary-general, it should have separate charged expenditures and it should be reconstituted and its rules amended.
He said the CCI should deal with separate accounts of the provinces and separate provincial service groups. All these responsibilities were currently being exercised by the federal government, he added.
He said all the provinces should be allowed to expand their fiscal and administrative authority so that a new chapter of relations between the centre and provinces could be begun.
He said the government had acknowledged that the issue needed to be resolved. He said the provinces should have their own service groups, their own accounts and the concurrent list should be revised. He said it was wrong perception created by the bureaucratic hierarchy that sovereignty of federation was based on centralised administrative setup.
In fact, sovereignty of the federation depended on justice, social development, protection of rights, respect and satisfaction of the provinces and the people, he said. He, however, explained that basic complexion of federal service groups should not change.
He said the article 240 and 260 of the constitution clearly provided that appointments and administration of services should be in exclusive domain of the provinces and the NRB made certain proposals to that effect but certain queries were raised which would be responded to in 15 days.
He said the responsibilities defined in article 137 and 197 of the constitution should be transferred to the provinces in their entirety. Article 137 deals with executive authority of the provinces while 197 related to powers to appoint judges of the high courts.
