KP convenes meeting to discuss NFC award delay

PESHAWAR: Provincial Finance Minister Muzaffar Sayyid  said the provincial government was finalising arrangements for holding an inter-provincial meeting on the September 19 next to take up the issue of delay in the announcement of the 9th National Finance Commission (NFC) award as the federal government continued to avoid announcing the same.

He was briefing the newsmen at the Civil Secretariat after the NFC committee meeting at the committee room of the Finance Department in the Civil Secretariat. Muzaffar Sayyid added that in-time announcement of the NFC Award was a constitutional obligation, but the federal government was using delaying tactics to avoid it. It is withholding the announcement of the NFC Award on number of pretexts, he claimed.

The finance minister said the provincial government had decided to initiate consultations with other provinces on the NFC Award so that joint efforts could be launched to make the federal government announce the Award at the earliest.

The provincial government, he said, had convened the inter-provincial meeting for September 19 in Islamabad on the NFC-related issues including delay in the announcement of the 9th NFC) award to take all the federating units into confidence on the matter.