PPP to call multi-party conference on national issues

Khuhro contacts PML-N, JI and other parties for the purpose

KARACHI: The Pakistan Peoples Party announced on Sunday that it would call a multi-party conference (MPC) in Karachi in the coming week to address the “conspiracy” against the 18th amendment, administrative changes to the National Finance Commission (NFC) and the Centre’s lacklustre response to locust invasion and Covid-19 outbreak.

PPP leader Nisar Khuhro contacted leaders from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) and Awami National Party (ANP) for the purpose, according to a press release issued by his spokesperson.

“We [PPP] will now send formal invitations to leaders from political parties and nationalist parties in Sindh,” Khuhro was quoted as saying.

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“We must raise our voices to address the conspiracy against the 18th amendment,” the PPP leader said, and added that the objective of the MPC would be to highlight the “inadequate” response of the federal government to the locust attack, among other issues.

Khuhro also lashed out at the Centre for its proposed administrative changes to the NFC.

“The federal government is unable to tolerate the fact that the provinces receive more in the NFC than the Centre,” he said.

“The Centre wants to weaken the provinces financially by reducing their NFC share,” he alleged.

He observed that the Sindh government would never accept any NFC award that would end up reducing its financial share, arguing that the 18th amendment mandated that provincial shares in the NFC award can never be reduced.

“We reject the autocratic thinking of the prime minister in this regard,” he said.

Khuhro said it was unfortunate that the PTI government was constantly undermining the provincial governments.

He demanded that the provincial share of the NFC award be increased from 57% to 60% immediately.

“The provincial governments have not received a penny in international aid,” Khuhro said.

He alleged that the federal government was ignoring the pleas of the Sindh government on the locust issue “on purpose”.

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“Locusts continue to wreak havoc on our crops in Sindh but the Centre is refusing to help us in our time of need,” Khuhro said.

“We will discuss all these issues during the conference,” he concluded.

The PPP’s announcement comes a day after its chairman, Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, had raised the NFC issue in a news conference.

He had warned that Centre’s NFC award proposal would not only affect the country’s national unity and social fabric but also send a “wrong message at a wrong time” internationally when Pakistan was facing many regional challenges.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 8^th, 2020.