Rabbani slams delay in NFC Award before budget

“Continuation of NFC Award, awarded in 2010, is a clear violation of Constitution, 1973,” he says

By Asim Yasin
May 24, 2025
PPP leader and former Senate chairman Mian Raza Rabbani. — APP/File
PPP leader and former Senate chairman Mian Raza Rabbani. — APP/File

ISLAMABAD: Former Senate chairman Mian Raza Rabbani on Friday took a strong exception to not awarding the National Finance Commission (NFC) Award before the budget for the next fiscal year, saying another federal budget was going to be passed with the old NFC Award, amended in 2010.

“The continuation of the NFC Award, awarded in 2010, is a clear violation of Constitution, 1973, and depriving the provinces of their constitutionally guaranteed fiscal resources,” he said in a statement.

The former Senate chairman was of the view that in the wake of further delay in the finalisation of a new NFC Award, “the provinces can raise a demand that all taxes to be collected by the provinces, and the federal government places its expenditure before the provinces for approval and payment”.

Rabbani said after the 18th Amendment, Article 160 of the Constitution had been amended providing that the share of the provinces in the new NFC Award will not be less than the previous NFC Award.