Islamabad:

The question of the National Finance Commission (NFC) Award has resurfaced, with the Senate Standing Committee on Funding, which is expected to convene a meeting next week to tackle provincial concerns about the division of resources, sources have revealed.

According to sources, the committee has decided to convene finance ministers from all four provinces to discuss complaints in connection with the NFC prize. The move comes in the midst of rising tensions between the federal and provincial governments over the allocation of funds and the delay in a new NFC formula.

Sources maintained that the federal government is reluctant to raise funds for departments that have been transferred to the provinces. The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government has especially raised concerns that its population has risen significantly after the merger of the previous FATA districts, yet this demographic shift has not been reflected in resource allocation.

KP Minister of Chief Ali Amin Gandapur has reportedly written a letter to the president expressing concern about the provincial exclusion from a reasonable share in the NFC award due to outdated population data.

The KP government decided that under NFC, a fair distribution of resources after every five years, was a constitutional requirement. However, the current NFC formula established in 2009 has been expanded over the past 15 years without significant revisions.

According to the existing NFC Award, 57.5% of the divisible resources are allocated to the provinces, while the federal government retains 42.5%.