K-P rejects NFC award extension

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has formally written to the federal government, expressing its refusal to accept an extension of the seventh National Finance Commission (NFC) award until outstanding funds for the newly merged districts are disbursed.

A letter, sent by adviser to the K-P chief minister on finance Muzammil Aslam, to the federal finance minister, asserted that without fully accounting for the K-P's population and geography in line with the 25th Constitutional Amendment, the province would not endorse an extension of the current NFC Award. It said that in a grand jirga held on September 5, chaired by K-P Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur, all stakeholders unanimously demanded the payment of outstanding funds to the merged districts.

It also lamented that the NFC, mandated as a constitutional consultative forum by the 18th Amendment, was not being implemented as required.

The merged tribal districts, once federally administered and now part of a financially weaker province, have yet to be fully integrated into the NFC's interprovincial transfer mechanism for 6.1 million residents.

The letter stressed that assigning these historically deprived regions to K-P, already struggling financially, continues to be a major challenge six years after the merger.