ISLAMABAD, Sept 5: The Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI) has demanded that the NFC award should be left to the next elected government as it will have major long-term implications for the federation.

By basing the entire revenue sharing formula on population alone deprives regions and provinces of their fundamental human rights and condemns them to perpetual grinding poverty and poor quality of life, the PTI central information secretary, Akbar S. Babar, said in a statement on Thursday.

The present formula ignores factors where the federating units differ widely in terms of per capita income population density, administrative infrastructure, ability to raise taxes and fiscal discipline, he said.

Mr Babar said his party’s election manifesto would be announced around September 15. The manifesto has been prepared by a team of experts and offers specific proposals to deal with all issues including strengthening the federation.

He said federalism demanded that the provinces should had adequate financial resources to provide basic services.

He said the NFC award process strikes at the heart of the principle of equity between federating units. Equal social and economic rights for citizens can only be secured if adequate resources are allocated. The citizens of the four federating units have equal rights to education, health care, economic growth opportunities, and justice.

He said the PTI recommended that independent economic surveys should be conducted to establish the Gross Province Domestic Product and determine income levels for each province and within provinces.