ISLAMABAD:
The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government told the Center on Tuesday that it may file a petition in the Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) against all parties for not giving their share over the merger of 6.1 million tribal districts with the province.
KP Chief Minister Sohail Afridi raised the issue during his meetings with the federal finance minister and the planning minister. The other three provinces last week refused to support the interim National Finance Commission (NFC), which the KP had demanded in lieu of the amalgamation of tribal districts since 2018.
According to a statement issued by the Finance Ministry after the meeting, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb assured the Chief Minister of his full support for the resolution of all legitimate issues. The ministry stated that Aurangzeb held the meeting “in a cordial and constructive atmosphere”.
Afridi met Aurangzeb a day after a meeting was held between the heads of all the governments, the president and the military leadership to deal with the fuel crisis. The chief minister briefed the finance minister on various economic and financial issues facing the province, the finance ministry said.
During the meeting, officials who were part of the discussions said that the KP Chief Minister raised the issue of increasing the provincial share in NFC due to the merger of new districts. He stated that if KP was not compensated, it could take the case to the FCC, the officials said.
They said the finance minister replied that he would return to the provincial government after consultations.
The KP finance minister had also written a letter to Aurangzeb last week informing him of the provincial government’s decision to walk out of the NFC talks until the issue of the merged districts was resolved. The Ministry of Finance has acknowledged receipt of the letter.
The KP government expects its share in the NFC to increase from 14.62% to 18.96% after the merger of the erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) in 2018. Last week, Dr. Asad Sayyed, Sindh’s member of the 11th NFC while talking to The Express Government Pakinomist that an NFC government Pakinomist would not give back to an NFC award.
The 11th Commission is currently working on finalizing a new consensus formula for allocation of resources between the Center and the four federating units. The seventh prize was completed in 2010.
The provincial representative made the statement after the KP accused the three provinces of going back on their earlier commitments to allocate additional resources to the merged districts. The provincial government has linked its future participation in NFC negotiations to the convening of the main NFC meeting and addressing the new burning issue.
Under the 25th Constitutional Amendment of 2018, the tribal districts had been merged with KP, increasing the provincial population by at least 6.1 million. KP is demanding an increase in its NFC share and payment of around Rs 980 billion in arrears since 2018 through an interim award.
Asad Sayyed said that the Sindh government would not support any attempt to pay arrears from earlier date. “We are ready to consider the newly merged districts as part of the 11th NFC award,” he added.
The Punjab government also said last week that the 11th NFC had no mandate to give an interim award. It was also of the view that the constitutionally guaranteed shares of provinces could not be changed retrospectively.
The KP government also asked the Center to compensate it financially till consensus is reached among all the parties. KP’s position in demanding the additional resources was close to that of the federal government, which wants the provinces to contribute towards meeting the expenses of erstwhile FATA, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan by allocating their due shares in the new NFC.
Currently, the federal government provides grants to KP to cover these expenses, but the provincial government is of the view that the annual grants are far lower than the actual expenses.
The KP Chief Minister also raised the issue of less payments to the province due to net hydel profit. The provincial government informed the finance minister that compared to Punjab, KP is getting less share. He claimed that in the last financial year, Punjab was paid about Rs65 billion in net hydel profit compared to Rs36 billion paid to KP.
The KP government also demanded an additional Rs 15 billion. due to covering the expenses of internally displaced persons affected by the military operations against the terrorists. The Minister of Finance assured to look into these demands.
“Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb reaffirmed the commitment of the federal government to facilitate the provincial governments in tackling their financial challenges,” the official release said.
