NFC Award: Centre continues denying provinces’ rightful share, says Rabbani

ISLAMABAD: Former Senate chairman Mian Raza Rabbani said that the federal government continued to deny the provinces their rightful share under the Constitution by not implementing Article 160, i.e. NFC Award.

He said the fiscal budget for the year 2021-2022 will be given under the NFC Award which is over 11 years old, whereas the Constitution envisages an award every 5 years. While accusing the government of violating Article 172(3) of the Constitution, he expressed concerns over the absence of Sindh, Balochistan and Punjab representatives in the signing ceremony of awarding six petroleum exploration blocks to the state-run oil and gas exploration and development companies.

“The federal government has failed to comply with the provisions of Article 172(3), making the provinces co-owner in mineral, oil and natural gas exploration. This is despite a detailed ruling given by the Senate chairman on January 23, 2018,” he said, adding that if the federal government continues to violate Articles 158, 160, 161 and 172, amongst others, the provinces will be left with no option but to demand that they be allowed to collect all taxes and the federal government lay its expenditure before the provinces to make allocations to meet the federal expenditure.

He said before this demand is raised, the federal government is advised to follow the constitutional dispensation. He said the exploration licences and a petroleum concession agreement were signed by the petroleum secretary and the director general of petroleum concessions on behalf of the federal government and the management directors of the companies.