LARKANA, Nov 29: The leader of the opposition in the Sindh Assembly, Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, has said that like its weak stand on the water share issue, the provincial government would also fail to safeguard the interests of Sindh in the coming award of the National Finance Commission.

Talking to journalists here on Saturday in a reception hosted by the People’s Party Parliamentarians leader, Mashooq Jatoi, he said that it was not beyond expectations that the provincial government would repeat its ineptness regarding the NFC award as it had done in the water share issue.

He said that the Sindh finance minister would be quite disappointed in Islamabad regarding NFC award recommendations and resolutions of the Sindh government as there would be no one to listen to him. Mr Khuhro advocated that income generation and not population should be made the basis for the NFC award.

He said that in utter violation of the 1973 Constitution, President General Pervez Musharraf had formed different water committees to study the water issue, which otherwise, was the prerogative of the Council of Common Interest.

He further said that neither the prime minister nor the chief ministers were powerful under the Legal Framework Order which gave power only to the chief executive and the governors. To emphasize his point, he said that despite its commitment, the Sindh government had failed to pay part of the dues to sugar-cane growers before Eid.

The law and order situation was going from bad to worse, moreover, the degree of unemployment could be gauged from the fact that around four thousand candidates had applied for 40 lower cadre posts in the Chandka Medical College Hospital, Larkana, he observed.

The formula as professed by Ghulam Mustafa Khar was not that of the PPP as he had not received any intimation from Ms Benazir Bhutto in this connection, Mr Khuhro said in categorical terms.

He said that Sindh would host the second round of the meeting of opposition leaders which was expected to be held in mid- January in Karachi. Points already agreed upon would be further debated in the meeting, he added.