Resource distribution: K-P minister to skip NFC meeting on 28th

Centre’s refusal to provide agenda, working paper irks finance minister

PESHAWAR: Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Finance Minister Muzaffar Said has refused to attend the National Finance Commission (NFC) meeting scheduled for Monday in the federal capital.

Muzaffar got annoyed by the federal government for calling the meeting at a short notice and not providing the agenda and working paper to his department.

“It is impossible for the provincial government to make preparation for the meeting called at this short notice when we have only Saturday and Sunday left,” the minister said while addressing a meeting on the NFC at his department.

The K-P government’s non-statutory member for the NFC Professor Mohammad Ibrahim would be representing the province in the meeting, while the K-P finance secretary would be assisting him.

“The federal government seems to be non-serious in the NFC because it is calling the meeting in emergency without sharing the agenda and working paper of the meeting,” Professor Ibrahim told The Express Tribune.

“The last meeting of the commission was held on April 28, 2015, and now after a gap of over one-and-a-half years you are calling the meeting in emergency!” he exclaimed.

According to Professor Ibrahim, K-P got the invitation for the commission’s meeting on Friday (today).

“This is injustice on the part of the federal government, and we would register our protest in the meeting, while the finance minister has refused to attend the meeting,” he said.

“Going to the meeting unprepared will not benefit the province,” the provincial finance minister said, expressing his concern over the attitude of the federal government.

“The federal government is trying to politicise the NFC, which would be harmful for national integrity and have a negative impact,” he noted.

Meanwhile, the K-P finance minister chaired a meeting at his department to prepare for Monday’s huddle. K-P (consultant) on the NFC Ihtesham Khan also attended the meeting.

The participants expressed concern over the federal government’s working paper on ‘Subsidy and Grants Rationalisation’ which it completed in two-and-a-half years.

“The federal government trapped the provinces in making surveys while its own working paper took two-and-a-half-year to complete and we have not seen the working paper yet. A one-sided decision on the basis of this working paper would not be acceptable to us.”

The finance minister said the federal government wants to extend the 7th NFC award despite it was constituted before the 18th Amendment.

“If the federal government wants to extend the 7th NFC award and is not ready to constitute the 9th NFC award, then it should provide adequate financial package to K-P for its security and infrastructural development,” the minister said.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 26^th, 2016.