ISLAMABAD: The inaugural meeting of the 11th National Finance Commission (NFC) is being held here on Thursday (today) to formally begin negotiations on the horizontal and vertical distribution of divisible pool resources among the federating units.

Federal Finance Mini­ster Muhammad Auran­gzeb will preside over the meeting, which will take up three agenda items. The four provincial finance ministers and four non-statutory members — Dr Asad Sayeed (Sindh), Mehfooz Ali Khan (Baloc­histan), Nasir Mehmood Khosa (Punjab) and Dr Musharraf Rasool Cyan (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) — are members of the NFC.

Chief ministers of Sindh and KP holding the finance portfolio will attend the meeting. KP CM Sohail Afridi will be leading a heavy delegation that also includes his adviser Muzammil Aslam, besides the non-statutory member and finance secretary.

At the outset, the meeting will hold general discussions on the “strategy for deliberations on the 11th NFC Award, including proposed formation of sub-groups for deliberations on thematic areas, etc”.

This will be followed by 10-minute presentations by each of the four provincial governments and the federal Ministry of Finance on their respective fiscal positions. The meeting will then set the schedule and timelines for future NFC meetings, most likely to be held in all federal and provincial capitals until the conclusion of deliberations.

The 11th NFC was constituted on August 22 to give a new award for sharing federal divisible resources between the Centre and the provinces. Its first meeting, initially called for August 27, was postponed repeatedly.

The terms of reference, set under Clause 2 of Article 160, require the 11th NFC to distribute between the federal government and the provinces the net proceeds of five major tax categories. These include taxes on income — including capital value tax and corporation tax but excluding taxes on income consisting of remuneration paid out of the Federal Consolidated Fund.

Published in Dawn, December 4th, 2025