PESHAWAR, Aug 21: The ANP-led coalition government in the NWFP will pursue the policy of the MMA government about distribution of resources on the basis of a multi-factor formula in the reconstituted National Finance Commission (NFC).

As constitution of the seventh NFC was still pending, the financial managers of the Frontier government were fine-tuning their strategy, an official said.

Acting President Mohammadmian Soomro is expected to approve soon a summary about reconstitution of NFC.

All the provinces have submitted their nominations to the federal government for working out an agreed formula for distribution of resources between the centre and the federating units. The NWFP government has nominated Senator Haji Muhammad Adeel, who is also senior vice-president of Awami National Party, as its member in replace of Dr Muhammad Zubair Khan.

The official said all the provinces were sticking to their old stance and therefore the NWFP wanted distribution of resources on the basis of multi-factor criteria, instead of only on the basis of population.

The sixth NFC award, still in place, was announced by former president Pervez Musharraf in June 2006 after provinces failed to reach a consensus over distribution formula and he was authorised by all the chief ministers to do so.

Horizontal distribution of resources made on the basis of population benefited Punjab and it got 52.54 per cent of the resources distributed in 2006-07. Sindh got 25.2 per cent, the NWFP 14.91 per cent and Balochistan 7.35 per cent under different heads. Punjab insists that the new award should be based on population; Sindh wants weightage for revenue collection, while the NFWP and Balochistan demand distribution on the basis of population, backwardness and area.

Haji Muhammad Adeel told Dawn that the current formula of resource distribution was uneven and it was a cause for disparities among the provinces.

He said that since the current criterion only suited Punjab, other provinces had been seeking its revision.

He said that the provincial government would chalk out its plan for the seventh NFC award, but it would mainly focus on distribution of resources on a multi-factor formula.

Haji Muhammad Adeel said that the NWFP was the poorest province in the country and it had also been the frontline province in war on terror, besides hosting over 3.5 million Afghan refugees.

“The next NFC will have to look at these factors, which contribute to the backwardness of our province,” said Mr Adeel. “I will try to convince the representatives of other provinces to give due weightage to poverty, infrastructure and presence of Afghan refugees in the NWFP,” he added.