January 06, 2007	Saturday	Zilhaj 15, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, Jan 5: The government has planned to abolish the concurrent list in two phases, granting greater autonomy to provinces, Federal Minister for Provincial Coordination Salim Saifullah Khan told Dawn on Friday.

"In the first phase, 37 of the 47 items on the concurrent list would be transferred to the provinces, and the rest in the second phase," he said, adding that the whole process would be completed during the current financial year so as to resolve the issue of provincial autonomy once for all.

He said that most of the work has been done to offer maximum autonomy to provinces. The prime minister and the provincial authorities had been briefed thoroughly about the job being done by the parliamentary committee headed by Senator Wasim Sajjad and the National Reconstruction Bureau (NRB).

Responding to a question, the minister said that issues like labour laws and divorce would be transferred to provinces in the first phase. No past government bothered to do away with the concurrent list, he added.

He, however, said that the government needed two-thirds majority to carry out legislation for greater provincial autonomy.

"Since the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (PML) does not have the strength to deliver unilaterally, we need cooperation from the opposition," he said.

He said that the next meeting of the parliamentary committee was expected in the third week of the ongoing month. The head of the committee, Senator Wasim Sajjad, would return from abroad on January 15 after which the date for the next meeting would be fixed, he said.

He said the opposition parties were still boycotting the meeting of the parliamentary committee.

"But our job is to invite them again and again so that consensus could be emerged over the issue of more provincial autonomy," he said.

However, Mr Khan made it clear that if the opposition members continued to abstain from the meeting, the government would have no other option but to finalise the recommendations with the help of its coalition partners.

According to informed sources, the government is considering three proposals to grant greater autonomy to provinces, featuring drastic revision of the concurrent list; doing away with the list completely; and restricting the centre to retain the portfolios of defence, foreign affairs and communications only.

"But the government cannot be expected to retain only three portfolios," a source said, adding that the committee was trying to find out a ‘workable solution’ acceptable to both the federation and the federating units.