Centre seeks nominations for CCI

LAHORE - After getting the 18th Amendment through the Parliament, the federal government has sought the names of the nominees from the provinces for constituting the Council of Common Interest (CCI), National Economic Council (NEC) and National Finance Commission (NFC). The permanent secretariat of CCI would work under the Cabinet Division while the details regarding its formation and working modalities have been sent to the provinces. It is said that two meetings of CCI would be held in the current year to monitor the progress made in the NFC Awards implementation. The abovementioned three bodies are the fora constituted under the Constitution to resolve the various disputes and problems at the federations level besides acting as a channel for the provinces to convey their opinion and suggestions. According to the Constitution, a CCI meeting can be convened at the request of a province at any time and it resolves various issues raised by the provinces regarding the Part-2 of the Federal List. Railways, mineral resources, industrial development, power, major ports and others fall under its domain while it also looks after the functioning of all the federal regulatory authorities. Similarly, the prime minister also heads the NEC, which closely monitors the overall economic situation of the country. The NFC with the finance minister as its head is also a permanent body, which decides about the allocation of financial resources to the federation and the provinces. It is important to note that the annual reports of CCI, NEC and NFC are to be presented to both the House of the Parliament while that of NFC is also submitted to the provincial assemblies.