Centre spends Pkr 710bn on devolved ministries.

Amid severe fiscal constraints, the federal government is still spending over Rs710 billion every year by retaining 17 devolved ministries and financing development projects in areas that under the Constitution fall in the provincial domain, said the World Bank.

The huge spending is contributing to higher public debt besides keeping many initiatives of the Centre under-funded.

Before the devolution, the federal government was spending 0.39 percent of the GDP on the 17 ministries that were subsequently devolved to the provinces under the 18th Amendment in the Constitution.

However, after some time, the PPP government and its successive ones, revived all those ministries - a move that is...