ISLAMABAD, May 12: Sindh has demanded an independent National Finance Commission (NFC) to give a just and fair award on the distribution of federal proceeds and has refused to give up its demand or reduce its share in the gas development surcharge (GDS). Sindh’s Senior Minister for Finance Syed Sardar Ahmad told reporters here on Thursday that the provincial leadership would meet in Karachi on Friday to firm up its strategy on the NFC.

He said after the meeting, he would contact his counterparts in the NWFP and Punjab and convey Sindh’s principled stand on the issue. “We will not give up our principled stand,” he added. The provincial minister said the national finance commission should be independent and neutral body comprising former governors of the State Bank of Pakistan, retired judges of superior courts and other personalities of known integrity.

The federal and provincial governments should present their cases to the independent commission to ensure a just and fair award, he said, adding that if a constitutional amendment to this effect was required it should be made without delay.

“We are not committing any Kufr” in demanding inclusion of revenue collection in the formula for horizontal distribution of resources. He said revenue collection had been one of the indicators in the distribution of resources since 1964 and this indicator provided 30 per cent share to the provinces.

Mr Ahmad explained that revenue collection was dropped from the formula after the creation of Bangladesh and there was nothing wrong in putting it back in place. He said it was Sindh’s principled stand that population should have maximum weightage in the horizontal distribution of net proceeds of the federal divisible pool, followed by backwardness and poverty and revenue collection.

On the question of GDS, the minister said he had provided to Balochistan facts and figures on the issue and added that Sindh was not getting something that was not fair because the province met its gas requirement mostly from its own resources.

He said Sindh was feeding the country’s fertilizer sector from the Mari gas field on subsidized rates while Kandhkot field was supplying gas to Kashmore. He said Balochistan should demand increase in its GDS share from Punjab and the NWFP because these two provinces were using subsidized gas produced in Balochistan.

Sardar Ahmad said the ex-officio member of Balochistan Dr Gulfraz Ahmad, who is a former petroleum secretary, was convinced on the matter and would perhaps refer the matter to Punjab and the NWFP.