Transfer of Population Welfare Programme (Field Activities) Ordinance, 1983

This Ordinance transferred the day-to-day, field-level work of Pakistan's Population Welfare Programme (essentially family planning and reproductive health services) from the Federal Government's Population Welfare Division to the Provincial Governments, while keeping national policy and coordination functions at the federal level. Section 2 says it overrides any conflicting law.

Section 3 defines "field activities" broadly: motivating and contacting clients directly, providing family health and contraception services through Family Welfare Centres and provincial hospitals (especially in rural areas), delivering services through provincial line departments, supplying contraceptives and medicines through community distribution networks, running publicity and communication campaigns, promoting community involvement, and coordinating with other district and local bodies. Section 4 formally transfers these field activities to the Provincial Governments, with the Federal Government deciding what counts as a "field activity" in any doubtful case.

Section 5 vests the Federal Government's powers over field activities in the Provincial Governments, who must in turn supply data back to the Federal Government for monitoring and research, and coordinate on functions the Federal Government keeps for itself. Section 6 keeps national policy, planning, training, supplies, statistics, monitoring, research, and foreign assistance functions at the federal level, and makes the Federal Government the sole judge of what counts as a policy question that provinces must follow. Section 7 allows the Federal Government to later transfer or withdraw specific activities between itself and the provinces.

Section 8 deals with staff: employees are retained by or transferred to the Population Welfare Division or a Province depending on who originally recruited them, with married or widowed female employees given an option to transfer to their husband's home province. Transferred employees keep their existing grade, pay, leave, and pension terms and become civil servants of the relevant Provincial Government, and are not entitled to compensation just because they were transferred. Section 9 transfers related assets, liabilities, contracts, and pending lawsuits to the provinces. Section 10 keeps federal financial liability limited to approved projects, funded through the Population Welfare Division's development budget, with grants restricted to their approved purpose and accounts audited by the Auditor-General.

This Ordinance dates from 1983 and was amended in 2001 to add validation language for actions taken under it and to broaden the government's power to transfer or withdraw activities; given its administrative, restructuring nature, it is less about individual rights than about which level of government runs a given program, though affected employees may still want to check current status against any later amendments.