August 20, 2008	Wednesday	Sha’aban 17, 1429

ISLAMABAD, Aug 19: Acting President Mohammedmian Soomro is expected to notify this month the names of the private and statutory members of the four provinces for early constitution of the new National Finance Commission (NFC).

“As soon the acting president signs the notification order, the cabinet division will formally announce the setting up of new NFC award and its first meeting could be convened in September,” a senior official of the finance ministry told Dawn on Tuesday.

He said the federal government had sent a summary to former president Pervez Musharraf in July to issue the notification. The matter was delayed because Mr Musharraf withheld the summary.

The official said that the federal government was in touch with the provinces. Sub-committees would also be formed to help work out the new award for five years, he added. Saeed Qurashi, Kaiser Bengali, Senator Haji Mohammad Adeel and Dr Gulfraz Ahmad had been nominated by Punjab, Sindh, NWFP and Balochistan, respectively, as their nominees for working out the new award.

When contacted, Mr Bengali said decisions on a number of issues, including the gas development surcharge, were still to be taken for the new NFC award. However, he said that since he had not held any meeting with the Sindh authorities he would continue supporting the views of his province that the new award should be firmed up on the basis of revenue collection.

“But all my efforts would be to finalise the new award with consensus so that there could be some fair distribution of resources among the centre and its federating units”, he said.

Punjab insists that the new award should be based on population while the NFWP and Balochistan want it on the basis of backwardness and area, respectively.

However, sources said the government had been advised by its planners to adopt a systematic approach to decentralisation and encourage the provinces to generate their own revenue. This would to reduce their administrative and resource dependence on the federation.

They said that there was a need to incorporate provincial grants into their respective resource shares in a way that the provinces achieved autonomy and become able to devise their own development plans.