ISLAMABAD, May 4: Punjab and the NWFP have rejected Sindh's demand for considering revenues to finalize the already delayed 6th National Finance Commission (NFC) award. Official sources told Dawn that Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Illahi met Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz on Monday (May 3) and told him that his government would never concede to the demand of Sindh.

However, the chief minister, after lot of persuasion by the finance minister, agreed to "population plus" basis for working out the details of the new award. Earlier, the authorities of the Frontier province also refused to make revenue as a prime factor to determine the award.

The finance minister may meet the chief ministers of Sindh and Balochistan within this week. After this a meeting of the finance ministers of all the four provinces will be convened in Islamabad to discuss the issue.

When contacted, a senior official of the ministry of finance told Dawn that the provinces were divided over the distribution of funds from the divisible pool and the "Centre has nothing to do with it".

"There is no quarrel over the funding allocation to the provinces under the new NFC award. But even if we allocate 50 per cent funds to the provinces, their (provinces) internal differences will not end," he claimed.

The official said the federal government was willing to offer 47 per cent shares to the provinces under the new resource redistribution formula. "We may agree to further enhance this percentage, but I would again say the provinces have to resolve their internal differences," he insisted.

The Centre, he said, was offering 2.5 per cent more resources to the provinces, which was fairly enough. In reply to a question, the official said the federal government was trying to finalize the new NFC award before the forthcoming budget.

But "if they (provinces) do not resolve their differences, the present formula will continue even after the passage of the next budget", he added.