Prime Minister of Pakistan Mian Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif has decided to abolish/wind-up five different federal ministry of the federal government under the plan to adopt the austerity measures. As per details, a report has been sought by the PM office reforms cell from the concern ministries with-in one week, where-in reply regarding eight questions has been asked from these ministries and concern ministries have started to prepare the answer of these questions. It was also ask from the ministries that that wheat is the requirement of federal ministries which were already shifted to the provinces and role of such ministries may be communicated to the PM office. Federal Ministries from which report was sought includesMinistry of Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan, Ministry of States and Frontiers Regions, Science andTechnology, industry and production and Health services. Prime Minister’s office reforms cell after the receipt of report from these ministries, it would decide about the future of these ministries. Earlier, Prime Minister of Pakistan had already decided to wind-up the public works department (PWD) and rest houses/guest houses under the control of PWD were being transferred to the estate office of housing ministry of federal government.
Ministry of Kashmir Affairs and Northern Areas *now Gilgit-Baltistan) was established in 1951 to deal with the matters of Kashmir dispute and this ministry was vested certain powers to deal with the internal affairs of Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan. Under the arrangement of said Ministry, Northern Areas Advisory Council was constituted in 1971 for the purpose of Northern Areas (now Gilgit-Baltistan) where-as to deal with the affairs of Azad Kashmir, an Interim Constitution being known as AJK Interim Consituon-1974 was enacted and some sort of powers related to AJK were transferred to the AJK Governmentestablished under the 1974 Constitution and remaining powers were retained with the AJK Council created the Act of 1974 headed by the Prime Minister of Pakistan. Where-as entire affairs of the Gilgit-Baltistan were kept under the control of said ministry till-2009 and in the year 2009, federal government had introduced Gilgit-Baltistan Empowerment and Self-Governance Order-2009 and some sort of powers were transferred to the G-B Government, where-as remaining powers were vested with the G-B Council created under the Order-2009 headed by the Prime Minister of Pakistan. It may be necessary to mention here that when the federal government/cabinet had approved 13th Amendment in the AJK Consituion-1974 during the month of May 2018, powers of AJK Council were transferred to the AJK Government by lowering the status of council to an advisory body and likewise, G-B Council was too made an advisory body under the G-B Order-2018 and powers of G-B Council were transferred to the Prime Minister of Pakistan and resultantly Ministry of Kashmir Affairs and G-B has become irrelevant in the governance affairs of the both regions and said ministry has no role under the law except the unnecessary intervention in the governance affairs of these two regions. Now the Prime Minister of Pakistan has decided to abolish the Ministry of Kashmir Affairs and a report was sought from the said ministry as to why its existence was necessary. It was often pointed out in these pages that the powers of the region being exercised by the said ministry in the name of Prime Minister of Pakistan were needed to be given/transferred to the government of the area and decision of the Prime Minister of Pakistan in this regard is highly appreciable.We may expect that Prime Minister of Pakistan would take appropriate measures to transfer all powers of the Ministry of Kashmir Affairs to the Government of Gilgit-Baltistan by abolishing the said ministry as soon as possible in order to empower the G-B Government like other provinces of the country
