ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – The 11th meeting of the National Finance Commission (NFC), responsible for the distribution of financial resources between the federation and the provinces, with IMF on board, will be held today (Thursday).
Federal Minister for Finance Muhammad Aurangzeb will chair the meeting.
According to sources in the Ministry of Finance, the finance ministers of all four provinces, technocrats, and members of the commission will participate. Nasir Mahmood Khosa from Punjab and Asad Saeed from Sindh will attend as commission members; Mahfooz Khan from Balochistan and Musharraf Rasool from KP will also participate. All NFC members have been invited to the meeting.
The Federal Secretary of Finance will serve as the commission’s official expert.
Sources said that recommendations regarding the award and a review of forming sub-groups are part of the agenda. A strategy for future meetings will also be formulated.
Earlier, Minister for Finance Aurangzeb said that the meeting will be held with a “Pakistan First” approach. “We will listen to the provinces and also present our own point of view before them,” he added.
It may be recalled that the 7th NFC Award has been in effect since July 2010. According to the constitution, the NFC must be reviewed every five years, but the scheduled meeting in 2015 could not take place and has still not been held.
Meanwhile, a consultative meeting was held the other day under the chairmanship of the Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Sohail Afridi to prepare for the NFC meeting.
He was briefed on the NFC. Detailed discussion took place regarding the financial and constitutional rights of the province under the NFC. It was reaffirmed that the struggle to secure the province’s rights will continue vigorously on every forum.
Addressing the meeting, KP Chief Minister Sohail Afridi said that although the administrative merger of the former FATA has been completed, the financial merger has still not taken place.
He said that under the NFC, the merged districts are entitled to Rs1,375 billion which have not been provided.
The chief minister said that at the time of FATA merger, a promise was made to provide Rs100 billion annually, which has risen to Rs700 billion. The federal government has provided only Rs168 billion.
Withholding the share of the merged districts is a violation of the constitution, he said and added that the financial and constitutional rights of the province will be fully protected.