K-P wants NFC award finalised without delay

Convenes meeting of reps from four provinces to pressure Center to announce the award

PESHAWAR: The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government has called a meeting of the National Finance Commission (NFC) representatives from all four provinces in a bid to put pressure on the Centre to finalise the 8th NFC award.

The meeting will be held on September 19 in Islamabad.

“The representatives from the four provinces, including their finance ministers and non-statutory members of the commission, will also decide if they want to take the matter to the Supreme Court of Pakistan,” K-P Finance Minister Muzaffar Said said on Thursday.

He was addressing a press conference at the Peshawar Civil Secretariat after an internal meeting on the subject at his department.

“We hope the President of Pakistan will play his role in pressurising the federal government to convene a meeting of the commission and finalise the award without any delay,” he said, adding that his government had already sent a letter to President Mamnoon Hussain asking him to play his constitutional role in this regard.



Said was of the view that the federal government should reduce its share in the divisible pool from the existing 42.5% and increase the share of provinces which is 57.5% under the 7th NFC award.

“The financial burden on the provinces has dramatically increased after the 18th constitutional amendment as many departments which were with the federal government have been devolved to provinces,” he said, adding that the federal government should take care of FATA itself, instead of asking provinces to make room for FATA.

Said accused federal Finance Minister Ishaq Dar of using delaying tactics over the convening of a meeting of the commission.

Said was accompanied by KP non-statutory member for NFC Professor Muhammad Ibrahim, who urged the federal government to set aside 4% from their own budget for FATA, Azad Jammu Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan.

Prof Ibrahim also wanted the Center to allocate 3% to the National Security Fund from its own share rather than taking it from the provinces.

He said the present commission, which had been constituted on April 24 2015, had held three meetings – the last one on December 19, 2016. He added that Finance Minister Ishaq Dar had told the media after that meeting that the next meeting would be held in January 2017, but it had not been called as yet.

Prof Ibrahim further said that the 7th NFC award had completed its five-year term on June 30, 2015 and “according to Article 160 of the constitution, the commission’s tenure is five years”. Thus, he added, the term for the award should also be five years.

He said that before 1996, the province’s share was 80% while that of the Center was 20%. He called for adopting the same ratio for the 8th NFC award.

Prof Ibrahim remarked that the September 19 meeting of the NFC representatives was meant for pressurising the federal government into convening a meeting of the commission and finalising the award without any delays.