15 October 2004	Friday	29 Shaban 1425

LAHORE, Oct 14: NWFP Finance Minister Sirajul Haq has held his counterpart in Sindh responsible for delay in the announcement of National Finance Commission (NFC) award.

"During every sitting Sardar Ahmad would phone London to seek dictation from the exiled leadership there and then refuse to accept the formula agreed upon by all other parties in the award," he told a questioner at a press conference here on Thursday.

"He was representing someone else instead of Sindh during the NFC Award meetings," he said. He said the federal government owed Rs345 billion to the NWFP on account of hydel power profit, and an arbitrary committee had been formed to settle the issue.

He said minority MPAs were the first to support the Shariat Bill as well as the ban on liquor when the relevant laws were introduced in the NWFP Assembly. He said the provincial government had completed a feasibility report of 10 medium-sized water reservoirs, and was looking for funding of the same.

Dilating upon the 21-month performance of the MMA government in the NWFP, the minister said they had established a university and a medical college for women, set up 20,000 adult literacy centres and provided free books to school going children.

In the health sector, 17 big hospitals were being constructed in 24 districts of the province besides free emergency services in four teaching hospitals. An endowment fund had also been established to help the people suffering from fatal diseases, he said.

He said they had initiated interest-free banking in Khyber Bank and written-off interest of 30,000 families. A centre had been set up in Peshawar for the people with no means of earning livelihood to learn stitching and electric work so that they did not indulge in begging. More such centres were being established at all district headquarters, he said.

For reforming jails, married prisoners were also being allowed to spend three days a month with their families in specially built one-room quarters in jails, he said. Sirajul Haq claimed that their performance had eliminated politics of nationalists and regional parties.