May 12, 2002	Sunday	Safar 28, 1423

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LAHORE, May 11: The provinces have opposed a National Reconstruction Bureau proposal, restraining the (future) provincial legislatures from voting on the provincial consolidated fund allocated to tehsils and districts by their respective chief executives.

If accepted, the NRB proposal would allow the expenditure on the districts and tehsils to be taken as expenditure charged upon the consolidated fund. Under the plan, the provincial assemblies can discuss the allocation to be made by their respective provincial chief executives but can’t introduce any cut motion to revise the spending.

Till now the provincial assemblies can revise the proposed allocations for the districts and tehsils out of the provincial consolidated fund.

The provinces have termed the NRB proposal to be violative of the constitution in its present form. “The curtailment of the authority of the provincial legislatures has been opposed on the ground that it was given to the assemblies by the constitution. And if the NRB wishes to implement its proposal, it would have to amend the constitution,” sources in the federal finance ministry informed Dawn here on Saturday.

The ministry has also backed the provincial point of view that the powers of the legislatures to approve the major part of the consolidated fund for the districts and tehsils could not be curtailed without amending the constitution.

According to the sources, the NRB intended to restrict the provincial assemblies’ authority through amendments in the laws.