PESHAWAR, Dec 15: The NWFP Assembly unanimously adopted an adjournment motion on Monday, seeking a debate on the formula for distribution of funds among provinces under the National Finance Commission.

The motion was tabled by People’s Party Parliamentarians leader Abdul Akbar Khan. The session was presided over by Speaker Bakht Jahan Khan.

Minister for Excise and Taxation Fazal Rabbani said the provincial government had asked the Centre to reconsider and redefine its formula for allocation of funds from the divisible pool to the federating units.

The NWFP government wanted that backwardness and poverty should also be considered as a basis for distribution of funds, he added.

He endorsed the views of the PPP leader and requested the chair to admit the adjournment motion for a debate in the house.

The speaker sought an admission of the motion, which the house unanimously adopted to be discussed during the current session.

Earlier, while speaking on the admissibility of his motion, Akbar Khan said governments of the four provinces had generated Rs800 billion for the divisible pool to be distributed among all the federating units, but the federal government had allocated only Rs510 billion under the NFC Award. The federal government was not giving any details of the remaining Rs 290 billion, he added.

Mr Khan said he was unable to understand why the federal government had taken out Rs290 billion from the divisible pool.

The federal government was refusing to declare this amount, being collected as various surcharges and additional surcharges mentioned in the utility bills as income, while Wapda considered it (surcharge) as income. If an amount had been not explained anywhere, who would benefit from that, he asked.

Mr Khan said: “If this amount is distributed among provinces, the NWFP share would come to about Rs16 billion.”

According to the annual report of the State Bank of Pakistan, over 40 per cent people in the NWFP were living below the poverty line, he said and added that this situation was more serious in the rural areas of the country where not everybody was employed.

He asked the house to send a strong note to the policy makers in Islamabad to redefine the formula for resource distribution under the NFC in the light of the recent SBP report on the socio-economic conditions of the people of this province.

Endorsing the demand, Anwar Kamal Khan of the PML-N proposed that both the government and the opposition should take a joint stand on it.

Earlier, on a point of order, Maulana Abdul Mujahid Al-Husaini, who returned to the house from a Nowshera constituency, spoke about the non-provision of natural gas to his area.

He said people in his constituency were facing gas shortage because of unnecessary loadshedding by the gas company. He warned that if the situation was not brought under control people would come out to the streets.

Taking the floor, Mushtaq Ghani of the PML-Q said that people of Abbottabad were also confronted with the same situation, where cold weather had gripped the area.

He urged the house to send a joint resolution to the ministry of petroleum to solve the demand of gas consumers. He urged the government to suspend gas supply to industrial estates and divert its supply to the domestic consumers.

Leader of the Opposition Shahzada Gustasap Khan and Nisar Safdar of the PML-Q drew the attention of the house towards a recent road accident, in which 14 people were killed and 25 injured.

They said negligence by the traffic police and dilapidated roads were the main reasons behind such fatal accidents. They urged the government to provide financial help to the bereaved families and free medical aid to the injured.

Minister for Local Bodies Sardar Mohammad Idrees told the house that the chief minister had already issued directives to the authorities to provide free medical aid to the injured people.

Later, Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Zafar Azam laid before the house the NWFP Public Service Commission (Amendment) Ordinance, 2003.