LAHORE, Sept 17: The Punjab government has decided to ask the National Reconstruction Bureau (NRB) to refrain from introducing the proposed National Executive Service and allow the provinces to formulate their own provincial and district services.

Another decision is to ask the NRB to allow the provinces to decide the number of their administrative departments and the strength of their employees according to their requirements and prevailing conditions.

These decisions were taken at a meeting presided over by Governor Khalid Maqbool here at the Governor’s House on Monday night, senior officials told this correspondent on Tuesday.

They said the Punjab view would be conveyed to the NRB in writing shortly.

The NRB had recently sent two proposals to the provinces to solicit their opinion. One of them was related to the restructuring of the civil service setup in the country, introducing the elite National Executive Service instead of the DMG, federal service, provincial executive service and the independent district government service.

The other proposal was about the reduction of existing number of provincial and federal departments in line with the numbers of departments in the district governments so as to complete the process of devolution of power.

Both the plans were sent to President Gen Pervez Musharraf last month who had asked the NRB to take a final decision, particularly about the future number of departments, after consulting the provinces so that a consensus could be evolved.

According to sources, it meeting decided to ask the NRB not to introduce the NES ‘in a haste’ as it was directly related to the future of the country.

The NRB proposal that the induction in service should be made at the higher level dominated the meeting, they said.

Sources said the meeting felt that the NRB should also be asked to leave the constitution of the provincial executive and the district government services up to the provinces so that they could evolve a structure best suited to them.

Similar views were expressed about the number of departments. It was felt that the provinces could not have the same shapes of departments because of their different conditions. For example, the NWFP required an independent and large forest department which the Punjab perhaps did not because of lack of woods, they said.

At present there are around 30 administrative departments in the Punjab. Their number in the district governments is around 13.

According to the NRB plan, the number of departments at the federal and provincial level should be reduced to 16 through mergers to make a direct relationship between the federal, provincial and district governments. It was also required to eliminate replication of functions and intrusion by the federal government into the provincial functions and by the provincial governments into the matters of the district governments.

The NRB plan says that the existing administrative system was designed for different era and for colonial law and order administration. It has centralization of powers which should be eliminated.

It says there is overstaffing in government departments. The staff is inefficient and under-qualified but the retrenchment is socially and politically unacceptable. Therefore, attention should be focussed on the functions of departments and maintenance of high quality and efficient staff.

It says that there should be equality in the ranks and status of the federal and provincial services. The perception of the all Pakistan service is seen as an agent of the federal policy control over provincial governments which must be corrected.

The 16 new departments the NRB plan proposes is an amalgamation of different departments. In fact one department houses different departments which are named as its wings.

The departments and their wings, in parenthesis, are: Food and agriculture (agriculture, fisheries, forests and wildlife, livestock and dairy development and food).

Community empowerment (community development, social welfare, culture, sports and youth affairs, labour and manpower, cooperatives, women development and literacy).

Personnel management (establishment, personnel management, cabinet and coordination).

Education and information technology (education, information technology.

Finance (finance and budget, statistics and accounts).

Planning and development (planning and development, enterprise and investment promotion, and common interests).

Health (health and population welfare).

Local government (local government commission, local council service, spatial planning and housing and kutcha abadis).

Revenue (land revenue and estate, colonies, consolidation, relief, and excise and taxation.

Works and services development (spatial planning and development, roads and buildings, energy and transport).

Home (home, prisons, police, judicial and civil defence).

Information and tourism (information and tourism).

Law (law, legal advice and drafting, and parliamentary affairs). Industrial development (industrial development, and environment.

Irrigation (irrigation, flood control, and canal and drainage).

Auqaf and Zakat (auqaf, zakat and ushr and baitul maal).

The existing departments are: Agriculture, livestock, forestry, fisheries, food, labour and manpower, information, cooperatives, social welfare, women welfare and baitul maal, implementation and coordination, services and general administration, education, Finance, planning and development, health, population welfare, local government and rural development, physical planning and public health engineering, board of revenue, excise and taxation, communication and works, transport, housing, home, information, culture and youth affairs, law and parliamentary affairs, industries, mineral development, environment, irrigation and water, auqaf, zakat and ushr. —Intikhab Hanif