Daily Times

KARACHI: Sindh Minister for Planning and Development, Finance, Energy and Irrigation, Murad Ali Shah, in his budget speech lashed out at the federal government and said it is the constitutional responsibility of the federal government to announce the National Finance Commission (NFC) Award for a period of five years under Article 160 of the Constitution.

He said the PML-N government has failed to fulfill its constitutional obligation adding that Sindh government completed its task and convened the very first meeting of the working groups of 9th NFC Award. However, the federal government has neither completed its report nor convened any subsequent meeting of NFC that has been due on its part, he lamented.

In protesting attitude, the minister claimed deliberate delay by the federal government was equivalent to running away from its constitutional obligation. He said, “I record my strong protest at the unwillingness of the federal government to undertake this important constitutional activity which is the detrimental for its citizens. I reiterate the government must fulfill its constitutional obligation for announcement of the 9th NFC Award for safeguarding constitutional rights of the federating units, without any further delay.” He said Sindh government is facing financial constraints due to delay in announcement of 9th NFC Award. He further said that the province has completed its task on delayed Vs integrated tax structure evaluation of tax collection framework in Pakistan in time and circulated its draft study paper to all provinces and federal government for comments and feedback.

Sindh took lead in convening the first meeting of the working group on 9th NFC Award in Karachi on August 17, 2015 and in the meeting, it was decided that the federal government would convene the next meeting of 9th NFC Award at the earliest, he added. However, in contradiction to this, the federal government did not convene a meeting till date. The minister said the last NFC was to end on June 30, 2015 adding that Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) government had fulfilled this constitutional obligation in letter and spirit and announced the 7th NFC Award well before time of its commencement.