PESHAWAR, May 6: The NWFP government wants distribution of resources between provinces and the Centre for the next five financial years, starting from July 1, under a new formula and not on the basis of population as is envisaged under the National Finance Commission award, official sources told Dawn on Monday.

The MMA-led government has asked the Centre to convene a meeting of the National Finance Commission after reconstituting it.

In a letter to Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz, the provincial government has asked for the NFC meeting at an early date to work out new award.

The province has taken the stand that as the one-year extension of the current NFC award will end on June 30, it has become mandatory for the Centre to start deliberations on the new award as is required under the Constitution.

NWFP’s position on most of the issues is likely to remain unchanged on the NFC which is yet to be reconstituted.

The NWFP government has preferred to retain Dr Mohammed Zubair as its non- statutory private member.

The government has also continued with the finance team left by the last military-backed civil government in the province.

Tough stand adopted by the last government over the issue of getting raised the capped share amount of net hydel profit from Rs6 billion to Rs8bn was one of four contentious issues which hampered the last military government from giving a unanimously accepted award before transferring power to elected representatives following the October polls.