KARACHI, May 27: Expressing concern over isolation of Sindh on the NFC award and the alleged Centre-Punjab conspiracy to deny the province its due share in the resources of the country, the Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarian’s Sindh chapter’s spokesperson on finance said on Friday that such harassment would not be acceptable to the people of the province.
Commenting on the consensus reached on the NFC between the finance ministers of Punjab, NWFP and Balochistan in an informal meeting which was not attended by the Sindh Finance minister, the PPP spokesperson MPA Shazia Marri said unfortunately, Sindh’s point of view on NFC Award had not just been ignored, even its projected share from the Public Sector Development Programme, fell miserably short of what it was entitled to.
Marri said that Sindh had already lost Rs88 billion from just last year’s projected share of the award. Sindh, as the highest collector of revenue, deserved to have that taken into consideration, she claimed.
She said her party had played an active role in ensuring Sindh’s rightful share in the Award, on revenue generation basis, and a unanimous resolution was passed by the Sindh Assembly on 30th Jan 2003, to that effect.
Pursuing that, she said, PPP had supported the Sindh Government on the issue, even though the Government engaged in talks and compromises behind closed doors, not bringing any proposal back to the House for discussion with the people’s representatives. However, she said, now that the Sindh Government had allegedly capitulated and abandoned its earlier principled stand, opting instead, for personal income tax collection, the PPP would not sit quietly.
To address the issue, the PPP had requisitioned Sindh Assembly session on May 31 and would demand an explanation from the government in this regard, she said.
An explanation would also be demanded from the Finance Minister over his independent decision of not attending the meeting of Finance Ministers, scheduled to discuss the NFC at Balochistan House Islamabad, since his absence ensured no representation from Sindh, she said.
Marri said that victimization of one particular province was a ploy by the anti-Pakistan forces working on weakening the Federation. She said that there was a conspiracy to alienate Sindh and promote Nationalist feelings.
Marri said that the Pakistan People’s Party, as the largest political party of Pakistan, had always fought for the rights of the oppressed, while struggling to keep Pakistan strong.
She said the PPP in its meeting ahead of the requisitioned session of the Sindh assembly would deliberate on the issue and would like to compel the government to clearly state its position on the new alignment which was apparently at the cost of Sindh’s interest. She said the PPP was of the view that the government was unable to protect interests of Sindh and was just following politics of deceit by simply making statements to side track the issue.