ISLAMABAD: The Sup­re­me Court has asked Attor­ney General (AG) Salman Aslam Butt to assist it in the matter involving a Punjab government complaint that the federal government was reluctant to hand over its share to it in the assets and funds that become due to the provinces as a result of the 18th amendment.

The dispute was raised by the Punjab government through a petition in the apex court highlighting that the Workers Welfare Fund (WWF) and Employees Old Age Benefits Institution (EOBI) and its assets have been transferred to the newly-created ministry of Inter-Provincial Coordina­tion from the Ministry of Labour and Human Resources — a department that has been devolved to the provinces — instead of being transferred to the provinces.

“The federal government has, therefore, forestalled the aspect of devolving the organisational and administrative structure of the two departments (WWF and EOBI) to the provinces and has withheld the human resource factor as well,” the petition moved by the law department of the Punjab government stated.

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Consequently, a three-judge Supreme Court bench headed by Justice Mian Saqib Nisar that had taken up the petition, issued notices to the AG as well as the advocate-general of the three provinces, namely Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Balochistan and Sindh.

By amending Article 270 AA (8) of the Constitution, the last PPP government had devolved the functions and staff of 17 ministries to the provinces through the 18th amendment in 2010. These included the ministries of Food and Agriculture, Spo­rts, Women Develop­ment, Minorities’ Affairs, Labour and Manpower, Environ­ment and Healthcare.

In doing so, the federal government was left with only five subjects to control, namely Finance, Defence, Foreign Affairs, Communi­cations and Revenue.

After the 18th amendment, the petition emphasised, the devolved subjects now fell within the exclusive legislative and executive domain of the provinces. Article 270 AA (8) unequivocally provided that on the omission of the Concurrent Legislative List from the constitution, the process of devolution of the subjects to the provinces would be completed by June 30, 2011.

But this process has been frustrated by the continuing omission on part of the federal government to transfer and deliver to the provinces the institutions and assets including the properties of the ministries that have been dissolved as a result of the devolution process of the 18th amendment, the petition said.

“The federal government has rather indulged in an exercise that borders on being ‘oxymoronic’ because even though the federal government has dissolved the ministries falling under the omitted entries, institutions falling under those ministries, their functions, assets and properties have been retained by the federal government. Rather these have been assigned and attached to other existing or newly-created ministries instead of being transferred over to the provinces in terms of Article 270 AA (8), the petition argued.

After a preliminary hearing, the Supreme Court called the AG and law officers of the three provinces and postponed further proceedings for a date to be decided later.

Published in Dawn, April 2nd, 2015

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