ISLAMABAD - The devolution of a number of federal ministries to the provinces under the 18th Constitutional Amendment took a serious dimension and a deadlock-like situation has arisen between the federal government and provinces because the latter have refused to absorb the employees of the ministries being devolved to the provinces. Sources in the Implementation Commission on 18th Amendment informed The Nation that the matter of handing over of five ministries to the provinces in the second phase was delayed a couple of times because all the four chief secretaries of the provinces in the meeting of commission had refused to take the employees of the ministries to be devolved to the provinces. Now the Federal Finance Ministry and Finance Division would furnish its detailed report on the financial impact of keeping all the employees of the ministries to be devolved to the provinces with the federal government on Saturday (today). Similarly, the commission would also look into the legal and constitutional intricacies and fallout of keeping some of the autonomous institutions of the ministries to be handed over the provinces with federal government like Higher Education Commission, National Film Censor Board, National Council of the Arts, Lok Virsa and other such departments. The commission had also called the Chairman HEC in the meeting on Saturday so that the commission could have his viewpoint on this issue. The sources in the commission informed The Nation that in the light of the discussion and in the input of the provinces on various aspects of the ministries to be devolved to the provinces, the government could call a joint sitting of the Parliament sometime in the middle of next month to segregate some of the departments from the ministries to be devolved to the provinces, as their devolution to the provinces could create problems instead of facilitating the things in favour of the public at large. The sources in the government informed that the dropping out of Federal Health Ministry to provinces from the second phase of the devolution exercise was only done because of the complexities associated with it. The sources further said that the government was working out a mechanism to separate the medicines evaluation and registration of foreign drugs process and some other departments like National Health Laboratories from the devolution process and would keep them with the federal government. The representatives of the provinces had also proposed that the process of the devolution should be delayed till the time the difference between the federal government and provinces on the employees issue were resolved but Chairman Implementation Commission Senator Mian Raza Rabbani had put his foot down and made it clear that devolution process would not be delayed. But, as the provinces stay firm on not taking the employees of the ministries to be devolved the process of devolution of ministries was first delayed for couple of times and now once again the commission would fall false on the latest deadline of March 31 as the commission would unlikely sort out the differences with the provinces in its probably last meeting to be held on Saturday (today). The sources in the commission informed that even the matter of the employees of the ministries already devolved to the provinces was not settled yet and provinces had just absorbed around 500 employees while the federal government has adjusted the remaining employees. Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan refused to accept even a single employee of Ministry of Local Bodies and Rural Development while Sindh government had just adjusted some 30 employees. The sources in the commission informed that the provinces were demanding five years salary of the employees, the federal government wanted them to absorb, the preposition not at all acceptable to the federal government. It is pertinent to mention here that in the second phase the government was intending to devolve ministries of education, tourism, social welfare and special education, culture and livestock. In first phase, the ministries of population welfare, special initiatives, Zakat and Ushr, youth affairs and local government and rural development were devolved to the provinces. The abolition of Concurrent List from the Constitution under the 18th Amendment out of 47 subjects in the list some 44 were to be devolved to the provinces while only three were made part of the Federal Legislative List. With the turning of these 44 subjects as completely provincial subjects a number of federal ministries and divisions dealing with these subjects would automatically become redundant and subsequently the process of their handing over to the provinces was initiated by the Implementation Commission on 18th Amendment which has set June 30, 2011 as cut off date to complete the devolution process. The subjects which would go to provinces included culture, education, environment, food and agriculture, livestock, health, housing and works, industries and production, information technology, labour and manpower, local bodies and rural development, minorities affairs, anti-narcotics, population welfare, religious affairs, Zakat and Ushr, science and technology, sports, social welfare and special education, textile industries, women affairs, youth affairs and special initiatives.