The president of Pakistan Peoples Party Sindh, Nisar Ahmed Khuhro has expressed concern over the continuation of old National Finance Commission (NFC) Award and asked the government to constitute a new commission for 2025.
Khuhro reminded the government that it is obligatory under the law to constitute a new commission after every five years to decide the distribution of resources between the Centre and the provinces.
He deplored that since 2010 the same award is being given to the provinces in contravention of the law. "This reality establishes that the Centre is evading to enhance the share of the provinces in the NFC award." He said that the 18th constitutional amendment made it incumbent on the centre to revise the award after a span of five years.
He believed that the stipulated revision of the award would have provided greater development funds to the provinces instead of keeping the fiscal resources at the disposal of the federal government.
Khuhro although welcomed the allocation of Rs900 billion for the federal development projects in the provinces, he was concerned that the routine cuts in the allocations may again occur in the upcoming fiscal.
Khuhro underlined that without the due release of funds from the centre, the Sindh government will not be able to construct 2.2 million houses for the people affected by the rains and floods in 2022. According to him, the work on 500,000 of those houses is already at different stages of completion and construction.
Sukkur barrage
Khuhro said the collapse of the gate numbers 44 and 47 of Sukkur barrage has resulted in a sharp drop in water level in seven canals springing from the barrage's left side. According to him, rice and cotton cultivation is being hit badly by the incident.
Meanwhile, Sindh president of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Haleem Adil Sheikh has demanded an immediate inquiry through the judicial commission of the gate collapse incident. He further called for resignation of Sindh Irrigation Minister Jam Khan Shoro and suspension of the irrigation officials whose negligence or corruption led to the collapse of the two gates.
"There are allegations that the gates were purposefully damaged so that persons can mint profits at the expense of the farmers and the province's agricultural economy." He also emphasised on the need of an independent audit of the irrigation department to unearth corruption and mismanagement.
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