January 02, 2009	Friday	Muharram 04, 1430

PESHAWAR, Jan 1: Financial woes of the NWFP and Balochistan will increase manifold if the federal government did not finalise the long awaited seventh National Finance Commission award, says the NWFP representative in the commission.

Talking to Dawn, Senator Mohammad Adeel, the NWFP member of the NFC, said delay in finalising the NFC was multiplying the financial constraints of the smaller provinces, which greatly relied on federal proceeds.

The federal government had reconstituted the NFC for distributing national wealth among the federating units in September last year, but no formal meeting of the commission could be convened yet.

Mr Adeel said the NWFP government had asked the federal government at different forums to convene the NFC meeting, but all in vain, which he said was causing hardships to the cash-strapped provinces.

The current worsening law and order situation in the NWFP needed extraordinary measures, which was not possible without availability of adequate resources, he maintained.

Distribution of resources between the Centre and the provinces is one of the contentious issues, as the seventh NFC award that has been due since 2002 is still pending.

An interim award, which is still in place, was announced by former president Pervez Musharraf in June 2006 after the provinces failed to reach a consensus on distribution formula.

All the four former chief ministers had authorised the president to announce an award.

As per that award, distribution of resources was made on the basis of only population, which benefited the Punjab because it got 52.54 per cent of the total resources distributed in financial year 2006-07.

Likewise, Sindh got 25.2 per cent, the NWFP 14.91 per cent and Balochistan received 7.35 per cent resources under different heads in the same fiscal year.

Mr Adeel opined that distribution of resources on the basis of a multi-factor formula, rather than just population as the basis, was a must to end the sense of deprivation among the smaller provinces.

“The provincial government is yet to finalise its strategy to be adopted in the NFC talks, but I believe the resources should be distributed with 60:40 ratios between the provinces and the Centre, respectively,” he remarked.

The NWFP government, Mr Adeel said, would demand distribution of resources on the basis of population, poverty and infrastructure, presence of Afghan refugees, impacts of the war on terror and industrial backwardness.