ISLAMABAD, May 7: The parliamentary leader of People's Party Parliamentarians (PPP) in Senate, Mian Raza Rabbani, has alleged the government of pushing the provinces into a state of perpetual confrontation with each other on different issues.

Talking to reporters at the chamber of the opposition leader in Parliament House here on Thursday, the PPP senator said the government had not yet finalized the National Finance Commission (NFC) award despite the fact that the federal budget was to be presented in less than a month time.

Mr Rabbani said provincial harmony was an important point of President Gen Pervez Musharraf's agenda when he took over the power in 1999. However, he said, the government had created a situation in which the provinces were even threatening to snap power and gas supplies to other provinces.

He said first the government failed to resolve the issue of water distribution among the provinces and then it created wheat crisis to further aggravate the differences between them.

He said the water issue could not be resolved even after the formation of two "illegal and unconstitutional" committees. He demanded that the Council of Common Interests (CII) should be established to resolve such issues.

He said imposition of ban on wheat movement by the Punjab government was a violation of Article 151 of the Constitution. Mr Rabbani said the "imported" finance minister had announced that the NFC award would be finalized by March 15 so that provinces could be able to prepare their budgets.

However, he said, despite the intervention of President Musharraf and Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, the government had failed to finalize the NFC award. "This is a failure of the government," he added.