ISLAMABAD, Oct 21: Federal Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination Salim Saifullah Khan on Saturday supported giving provinces maximum autonomy but stressed the need for keeping it within precincts of a strong centre vital for strong federation.

Talking to newsmen here, the minister said that the government had decided to activate parliamentary sub-committee headed by Senator Wasim Sajjad which would create a consensus on a formula of transfer of powers to provinces.

He said that the government wanted to bring the provincial autonomy bill to parliament and pass it before the next budget.

Referring to the fate of the Mushahid parliamentary sub-committee, Mr Saifullah said that ‘almost 60 to 70 per cent’ of its recommendations had been implemented or were in the process of implementation.

The minister praised the NWFP government for taking legal action to seek its constitutional right on net profits on hydel power generation and hoped that the province would get the outstanding dues through negotiations.

He said that the capping of net profits at Rs6 billion after A.G.N. Kazi Award in 1991 was unjust decision by the then government and the decision of the arbitration tribunal was a decision in the right direction.

Denying media reports about the possibility of creating more provinces, the minister said that it was only an issue of public debate. The minister said that after the increase in provinces’ share under the interim NFC award, it was responsibility of the provinces to utilise additional resources on development.

He said that the government was not considering the scrapping of the concurrent list as the issue was to be tackled by the parliamentary committee as part of a comprehensive constitutional package.

He agreed that almost all political parties agreed on giving maximum governance powers to the provinces but the demand of leaving only three or four subjects with the centre was another extreme.

PML’s secretary-general Mushahid Hussain differed with Saifullah on the issue of provincial autonomy and said that the federation would be strengthened the more autonomy the provinces were given.

He blamed the bureaucracy for hampering the implementation on the parliamentary committee’s recommendations but said that they had now been cleared.