Rabbani demands announcement of NFC Award

ISLAMABAD: Former Senate chairman and senior leader of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Mian Raza Rabbani demanded the constitution of the new National Finance Commission (NFC) Award immediately, saying that the last NFC Award was announced in the year 2010, by a PPP government and now 14-years have passed and no NFC has been announced.

“The PMLN and PTI governments have failed to announce the Award during their tenures when it was due,” he said while demanding the reconstitution of the NFC Award and its immediate announcement in a statement on Thursday.

Rabbani said Article 160, Constitution, 1973, requires, every five years for a new Award to be announced. For the past fourteen years the Constitution, 1973, is being violated and both the federal and provincial governments sit as silent spectators.

Rabbani said the new Award has been kept in abeyance, so that the federal elite capture over the federal resources is perpetuated to the disadvantage of the provinces.

The former Senate chairman said this is also evident as the federal government has failed to announce any austerity measures at the federal level in the budget. It has asked for one and a half month, one fails to understand why so much time, the federal elite does not want to give up its privileges.

Similarly, he said the devolved ministries in the Federation are identified but the federal civil bureaucracy does not want an erosion of its powers. “These ministries be devolved immediately to the provinces,” he said.