LAHORE: There has been no meeting of the Council of Common Interests since the formulation of the PML-N government in the Centre, and the cabinet of its Punjab chapter has met only for once in its present tenure.

Officials said the important agenda seeking approval of the CCI and the provincial cabinet was pending.

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They said most of the decisions in Punjab were being made through executive orders. Only matters considered important by the provincial government were being got approved by the cabinet through the method of circulation. This method does not involve any discussion. The ministers follow instructions to approve a file.

Punjab cabinet has met only for once, relies mostly on executive orders

Sources said that different inter-provincial issues were pending approval by the CCI but it had not met even for once since the inception of the central Nawaz government.

The government issued notices for two CCI meetings in the recent past but they were cancelled at the eleventh hour.

Under the constitution, the prime minister chairs the CCI meeting. Federal inter-provincial coordination minister chairs the minister-level meeting of the junior Inter-provincial Coordination Committee.

The third is the CCI’s secretary level committee which initially considers issues pertaining to the centre-province matters and, if found sound, forwards them to the minister-level committee for consideration. This committee finally sends the matters worthy of decision to the CCI.

Officials claimed that both subsidiary committees too had not met during the present government of Nawaz Sharif.

They said the Punjab cabinet of Shahbaz Sharif had met once for approving the provincial budget in June this year. A special meeting was held in September only to approve a relief package for the flood victims.

Sources said majority departments were normally asked to quickly prepare cases for approval of the cabinet. This was done to avoid wrath of the authorities but the matters kept pending a decision for a lack of cabinet meeting.

Published in Dawn, October 25th, 2014