Provinces not given due NFC share: PPP

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Friday accused the federal government of not giving due share of the National Finance Commission Award (NFC) to the provinces.

“Under the Constitution, a fixed portion of the NFC award is given to the provinces and Sindh is not getting its constitutional share,” said Information Secretary PPP Parliamentarians Shazia Marri while addressing a press conference here.

Shazia said not only Sindh, but also the other three provinces were not getting their share but they chose to remain silent. She said Sindh was constantly being abused adding that the PSDP was approved by the NEC, which should hold at least two NEC meetings a year but only one meeting was held.

She said Sindh’s share in NFC was 770 billion and in the last 11 months it received only Rs613 billion whereas it should have got Rs690 billion in the last 11 months. She hoped that Sindh will get Rs147 billion more next month.

Shazia said, “We do not want reduction in the share of Balochistan, Pakhtunkhwa or Punjab. It was not expected of Asad Umar, who claims to know the Constitution, to mislead the people,” she said.

She asked if the provinces did not build motorways, then why Sindh was being demanded to build motorways. She said some of the bills that were passed yesterday were not even passed by the standing committees.

“The Nepra bill was not passed by the standing committee,” she said. She said the PTI had tarnished the image of Parliament by bulldozing these bills. Shazia Marri said a fraudulent and controversial census was approved by the Council of Common Interests and the Sindh government had approached the Parliament in this regard.

“Sindh has written a letter to discuss the issue of the census in a joint meeting of the parliament,” she said. Regarding water shortage in Sindh, she said water should be provided to Sindh under an agreed principle. “The federal government wants the provinces to fight each other,” she said.