Payment of salaries to devolved ministries' employees: CCI constitutes committee to devise strategy

The Council of Common Interest (CCI) on Tuesday constituted a committee headed by Secretary Finance Dr Waqar Masood to devise strategy for payment of salaries to the employees of devolved ministries. The CCI met here with Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani in the chair.
Secretary Finance told newsmen at Ministry of Finance after returning from the CCI meeting that the committee was constituted under his chairmanship to work out financial impact in terms of salaries of the employees of the devolved ministries. He said that issues of subsidy on agricultural tube wells as well as privatisation of power generation and distribution companies were deferred till the next meeting.
Meanwhile, according to a statement, the item regarding replacement of tub-wells with better technology which would help save 1100 MW of electricity and ultimately lead to possible withdrawal of subsidy on agricultural tube-wells, it was observed that this matter does not fall within the purview of the Council of Common Interest.
It was, therefore, decided that the federal government would resolve the matter with the respective provincial governments separately. The Council of Common Interest deferred the issue of privatisation of three electricity generation companies (GENCOS) and eight electricity distribution companies (DISCOS) till the next CCI meeting.
Regarding provision of funds for the salaries of employees and budget for the on-going projects of the Ministries being devolved, a committee was formed consisting of all the Chief Secretaries and the Federal Finance Secretary to work out the financial implications and measures to raise the requisite funds.
The prime minister will subsequently hold a separate meeting with the Chief Ministers of all the four provinces to look into the political aspects and accordingly merge the recommendations of the committee of Chief Secretaries when agreed by the Chief Executives of the provinces.
Since the summary on the matter was circulated to the members of the council late, the provincial governments could not study it in detail to be able to give their input. The meeting was attended by the Chief Minister of Punjab Mian Shahbaz Sharif, Chief Minister Sindh Syed Qaim Ali Shah, Chief Minister Balochistan Sardar Aslam Raisani and Information Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwah, Mian Iftikhar Hussain, all the members of CCI and all the four Chief Secretaries.