Senato Paneli: Merkez 18. Değişikliği İhlal Ederek Yılda 5-6 Trilyon Rupi Kaybettiriyor

Govt ‘bleeding’ Rs5-6 trillion annually, Senate body laments

• Lists 25 ministries, bodies as having been ‘unlawfully retained’ by Centre • Calls for CCI to be reconstituted on basis of equality among provinces ISLAMABAD: A Senate panel on Monday accused the federal government of deliberately ignoring the 18th Amendment and “hemorrhaging” Rs5 to Rs6 trillion annually by retaining ministries and functions that constitutionally belong to the provinces and the Council of Common Interests (CCI). The Senate Subcommittee on Devolution met at Parliament House with Convenor Senator Barrister Zamir Hussain Ghumro in the chair. Senators Poonjo Bheel and Jan Muhammad Buledi attended the meeting, while Senator Nadeem Ahmed Bhutto participated as a special invitee. The convenor said downsizing the federal government was directly linked to reducing expenditure. The committee, he said, had examined the federal budget of approximately Rs19 trillion for FY2026-27 against the country’s total tax and non-tax revenue of about Rs20 trillion “with alarm”. The subcommittee was of the “firm view” that non-implementation of the 18th Amendment had led to financial bleeding that could be “immediately stemmed”. It said replies filed by various ministries were “evasive and not in consonance with constitutional provisions”. The committee concluded that the federal government had “brazenly ignored” the 1973 Constitution by creating ministries, institutions and organisations dealing with provincial subjects and matters that had previously been on the Concurrent Legislative List. It noted that the 18th Amendment Implementation Commission had also issued directions to this effect. The committee stressed that, under Article 154, subjects in the Federal Legislative List Part-II — including railways, oil and gas, petroleum, Wapda, major ports, federal regulatory authorities such as Ogra, Nepra, Irsa, Pemra and PTA, national planning, public debt, the census, standards in higher education and inter-provincial coordination — must be decided by the CCI rather than the federal cabinet. The committee called for the CCI to be reconstituted “on the basis of equality of provinces” and for its rules to be framed immediately under Article 154. It rejected the federal government’s reliance on the 1997 Gadoon Amazai judgement, saying the basis of that observation had been removed after the 18th Amendment mandated that CCI meetings be held every three months. The subcommittee listed 25 ministries and bodies that it said had been “unlawfully retained” by the federal government, including health, education, national food security, water resources, climate change, housing, culture and heritage, Zakat and Ushr, EOBI, narcotics, PMDC, railways, industries, statistics, petroleum, planning and development, and Wapda. It declared that ministers and officers of these bodies were “holding their positions without lawful authority and are a burden on the national exchequer”. It said these entities must be “immediately shut down and/or devolved” without affecting their employees, in accordance with the Implementation Commission’s procedure. The committee said faithful implementation of the 18th Amendment could save Rs5-6 trillion annually, which could then be disbursed to the provinces. It said the federal government should limit itself to nine ministries under the Federal Legislative List Part-I — Defence, Foreign Affairs, Finance, Commerce, Communications, Maritime Affairs, Science and Technology, Law and Justice, and Parliamentary Affairs — with an official budget of Rs3.3 trillion. This, it added, could bring federal expenditure down from Rs19 trillion to Rs13 trillion. Comparing the budgets, the committee noted that the combined provincial budgets for 2026-27 stood at Rs1.089 trillion for Balochistan, Rs2.1 trillion for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Rs3.5 trillion for Sindh and Rs5.9 trillion for Punjab. “In other words, the federal government illegally and unconstitutionally withholds the equivalent of Punjab’s entire annual budget,” it said. The committee warned that failure to implement its recommendations “on an urgent and emergency footing” would be tantamount to “subversion of the Constitution”. It concluded that if the government “puts its house in order” and abides by the Constitution, Pakistan would no longer need foreign loans. Published in Dawn, August 18th, 2026