KARACHI, May 29: The Sindh government did not receive any working paper and other documents of the National Economic Council (NEC) by Saturday late afternoon. The NEC is now scheduled to meet on Tuesday (June 1) at Islamabad to decide on a Rs195 billion Public Sector Development Programme for the next fiscal year.

Following a breakdown of the National Finance Commission (NFC), the federal government appears to be tentative and indecisive on holding of the NEC and the presentation of the 04-05 budget.

Initial indication of the NEC meeting was on June 3. But then the federal cabinet had decided to make presentation of the federal budget on June 5 and President Musharraf has already called the National Assembly into session from June 1. The convening of NEC June 3 was found inappropriate and it was then re-scheduled on Monday (May 31).

On Friday there were reports that the government would consider holding an informal NFC session on Sunday (May 30) to make another effort for consensus on resources distribution formula. But by Friday evening telephone calls from Islamabad to Sindh secretariat in Karachi indicated that NEC meeting on Monday may be put off. The proposed informal NFC deliberations on Sunday were tied up with the scheduled NEC meeting on Monday.

On Saturday, senior officials said that a telephone call from the Cabinet division has suggested the NEC meeting is being held on Tuesday (June 1). But till Saturday afternoon there was neither any notice for NEC meeting nor were there any working paper and other documents.

Now if the NEC working paper and other documents are dispatched on Sunday, the provincial government team will get hardly 24 hours to study and prepare a strategy for giving their views in the NEC meeting on Tuesday.

The ministers and the officials of Sindh look terse and run down after what they experienced in the NFC deliberations on last Saturday and Sunday at Islamabad. "It appeared that they had already decided to give a deaf ear to Sindh's proposal for revenue distribution formula," the Sindh Finance Minister Syed Sardar Ahmad had informed a Press conference at the Karachi Press Club on last Monday evening.

A document prepared for the APCC meeting had accused the federal government for showing no regard to the directives given by the President and Prime Minister regarding key mega projects in Sindh.

It looks that federal government is in no mood to lay down infrastructure to connect Monabao with Sindh hinterland as nine schemes prepared by Army authorities for this purpose were ignored and no money was sanctioned.

The original APCC document also showed no money for the water supply scheme in Karachi and there were fears that K3 project would remain incomplete by December 2005. But Shoaib Bokhari, the Sindh's Planning and Development Minister claimed that he was able to get an assurance of Rs3 billion for this scheme in the current fiscal year.

This complete lack of coordination between the governments in Sindh and Balochistan with that of Islamabad is very surprising because PML is the common factor in Karachi, Quetta and Islamabad and the other parties in the coalition are the allies.