PESHAWAR - Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on Thursday asked the federal government to ensure immediate formulation of the new National Finance Commission (NFC) award; otherwise they would file a petition in the Supreme Court in this regard.
“We will invite representatives of other provinces to Peshawar on September 19 to chalk out future line of action regarding undue delay in formulation of the new NFC award and after unanimous decision, the KP government along with other provinces would file writ petition in the apex court”, Muzaffar Said, KP finance minister, said while briefing media persons in Peshawar.
He said that the federal government was violating Article 160 of the Constitution by delaying formulation of the new NFC award and despite repeated requests of KP government; the federal government was ignoring their demands.
Muzaffar Said added that the NFC award was a national issue and the federal government should immediately resolve the matter to ensure financial rights of the federating units. He said that earlier to this, the federal government had delayed the eighth NFC award and now they were putting hurdles in the way of formation of the ninth award.
He recalled that despite the promise of Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and his invitation to all provincial finance ministers, the new NFC award could not be formulated. He said that it was sheer violation of the Constitution to stop 80 per cent share of the provinces under federal divisible pool.
He also mentioned that after new census and increase in population of KP, the federal government should increase share of the province in the NFC award and as per the prescribed formula, the federal government should allocate only 20 per cent of the total revenues for federal government and Fata.
He said that despite increase in the population of Fata, there were no facilities available for millions of tribal people, adding that the Fata needed to have a medical college and quality hospitals. He appealed to the President Mamnoon Hussain to approve the NFC award and fulfil his constitutional obligations regarding financial shares of the federating units.
