SHAHBAZ Sharif, chief minister of Punjab, in a recent statement at Sukkur, claimed that Punjab had sacrificed for Sindh more than Rs10 billion in the recent NFC Award.

Sharif brothers should immediately stop making such false claims.

When East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) was part of Pakistan, some politicians from Punjab were against the distribution of the NFC Award on the basis of population but when East Pakistan separated, the same kind of politicians have turned the tables and became a champion of the sole criterion of population-based NFC Award for years.

In the last award, only five per cent weightage was given to revenue generation, thus the award was a farce as far as Sindh was concerned.

Sindh contributes about 70 per cent to the divisible revenue pool and, in return, gets a meagre amount. However, Punjab got included an article in the 18th Amendment that the income received by a province earlier in the NFC Award cannot be reduced in future.

I refer Shahbaz Sharif to the BBC website which said that Punjab’s claim for loss in the NFC was wrong. It was only the federal government that surrendered its 10 per cent share. Therefore, Mr Shahbaz Sharif’s claim is highly exaggerated.

Further, I may remind him that when Nawaz Sharif was the prime minister twice (total period six years), he did not launch or complete any mega development programme in Sindh.

Instead, he abolished two mega development projects like Keti Bunder Project and Thar Coal launched by Benazir Bhutto.

MOHAMMAD KHAN SIAL Karachi