ISLAMABAD: The 11th meeting of the National Finance Commission (NFC), tasked with distributing resources between the federal government and provinces, has commenced.
The session is being chaired by Federal Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb, with the IMF also on board for discussions regarding the new NFC award.
According to sources from the Ministry of Finance, all four provincial finance ministers, technocrats, and commission members are participating. The provincial representatives include Nasser Mahmood Khosa from Punjab, Asad Saeed from Sindh, Mahfooz Khan from Balochistan, and Musharraf Rasool from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. All NFC members have been invited to the meeting, while the Federal Secretary of Finance is serving as the official expert for the commission.
The agenda includes reviewing recommendations for the new award, considering the formation of sub-groups, and setting the roadmap for future meetings. Finance Minister Aurangzeb stated, “We will approach the meeting with a ‘Pakistan First’ mindset, listen to the provinces, and present the federal financial position transparently.”
The current seventh NFC award has been in effect since July 2010. The Constitution mandates a review every five years, but the scheduled 2015 meeting did not take place until now.
A day prior, a key consultative meeting was held under the chairmanship of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister, Sohail Afridi, to prepare for the NFC session.
During the briefing, the CM was informed about the province’s financial and constitutional rights in NFC discussions. He emphasized that despite the administrative merger of former FATA, financial integration has not yet occurred.
Under the NFC, the merged districts are entitled to PKR 1,375 billion, which has not been provided. At the time of merger, an annual allocation of PKR 100 billion was promised, which now totals PKR 700 billion. Of this, only PKR 168 billion has been disbursed by the federal government, leaving a balance of PKR 531.9 billion.
CM Sohail Afridi stressed that withholding the merged districts’ share violates the Constitution, and the province’s financial and constitutional rights will be fully protected.