Rabbani says ministries formed after 18th Amendment 'unconstitutional'

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader, Senator Raza Rabbani said on Friday that the ministries formed by the government after the passing of the 18th Amendment were “unconstitutional”. Rabbani had earlier headed the Implementation Commission on 18th Amendment.

Rabbani was speaking on a point of order when Senator Nilofar Bakhtiar of Pakistan Muslim League – Quaid (PML-Q) had informed lawmakers that the new Heritage ministry was unconstitutional.

Some lawmakers also linked the devolution of the Health ministry to provinces as a reason for the death of over 100 patients in Punjab. Rabbani said the argument was bizarre.

Speaking in the Senate on a point of order, Rabbani said he had written to Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani that the decision to form new ministries was unconstitutional and said that nobody had listened to him.

Senator Professor Khurshid Ahmad of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) said that before the 18th Amendment, there was no justification for 11 ministries, but now they were unconstitutional.

“The federal government is resisting the process of devolution,” he said.

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani had created seven new federal and state ministries in 2011 to absorb leftover departments after devolution.

Posted in: NATIONAL