PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa sports and youth affairs department intends to approach the Supreme Court against the refusal of the federal government to devolve the functions and assets of the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) to provinces in accordance with the 18th Amendment to the Constitution.

It has moved a summary to the caretaker chief minister seeking his permission to sue the federal government on the matter by invoking Article 184(1) of the Constitution, sources told Dawn.

The summary, a copy of which is available with Dawn, said that the federal cabinet decided in a meeting on June 6, 2011, to assign the functions and assets of the federal ministry of sports to the Pakistan Sports Board instead of transferring them to provinces in line with a decision of the “implementation commissioner.”

It added that following the federal cabinet’s decision, the Inter-Provincial Coordination Division informed provinces that the PSB along with its centres had not been devolved to the provinces, so the PSB coaching centre in Peshawar couldn’t be handed over to the KP government.

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In the summary, the sport department said that after the 18th Constitutional Amendment, the IPC division repealed the PSB Rules, 1981, and framed an instrument called the Constitution of the Pakistan Sports Board under the provision of Sports (Develop and Control) Ordinance, 1962, on Feb 2, 2022.

It added that while repealing those rules, all assets, liabilities, programmes and funds of the erstwhile Pakistan Sports Board were transferred to the newly-formed board.

The department said if it was expedient to constitute the PSB after 18th Amendment, the federal government with goodwill was required to seek the consent of all provinces by giving leading representation and prevailing decision powers to the provinces in the constitution of the PSB.

It added that under Article 270 of the Constitution, the functions, business, properties and assets of the sports ministry had been explicitly devolved to the provinces and not to any division or organisation in the federation.

“The provinces and provincial assemblies are now empowered to frame statutes and rules and promulgate legislative instruments on the subject of sports. The decision of the federal cabinet referred to above and the Instrument of the Constitution of Pakistan Sports Board, 2022, is inconsistent with the provisions of the Constitution,” it said.

The sport department also said Article 144 of the Constitution stipulated that if one or more provincial assemblies passed resolutions to the effect that parliament might by law regulate any matter not enumerated in the federal legislation list in the fourth schedule, it would be lawful for parliament to pass an act for regulating that matter accordingly, but any act so passed might, as respects any province to which it applied, be amended or repealed by Act of the assembly of that province.

It added that Article 147 of the constitution provided that notwithstanding anything contained in the constitution, the government of a province might, with the consent of the federal government, entrust, either conditionally or unconditionally, to the federal government, or to its officers, functions in relation to any matter to which the executive authority of the province extended, provided that the provincial government would get the functions so entrusted ratified by the provincial assembly within 60 days.

The summary said that neither resolution under Article 144 of the Constitution had been passed by the KP Assembly with regard to promulgation of an Act by the parliament nor any executive authority of the government of KP had been conveyed to federal government, or to its officers as provided under Article 147 of the Constitution with regard to functions in relation to the subject of sports.

It added that after exhaustive correspondence with no fruitful result, the sports department proposes that the federal government might be sued by invoking the original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court as provided under Article 184(1) of the Constitution with regard to the devolve functions and related statutes governing the sports activities in the country.

Published in Dawn, November 3rd, 2023