KARACHI, April 22: The Sindh government has rejected a proposal by the Punjab government for extending the period of NFC Award for one more year “as its continuation will be against the interests of smaller provinces”.

Aftab Ahmad Shaikh, advisor on finance to the chief minister, urged the federal government to resolve the issue immediately, and pointed out that smaller provinces had already been suffering and a sense of deprivation was prevailing among masses.

He recalled that the federal government had agreed, in principle, to increase the share of the provincial governments in the divisible pool by 2.50 per cent.

The provinces, which were getting 37.5 per cent share earlier, would be disbursed 40 per cent from the pool money, Mr Shaikh pointed out.

He said the mid-term award or extension of the period of present award by one year would go against the interests of smaller provinces.

Mr Shaikh said the present award did not commensurate with the requirement and rights of Sindh and there was a demand for constitution of the new award before the next budget so that provinces could plan their development projects accordingly.