PESHAWAR, June 24: NWFP Finance Minister Sirajul Haq has vowed that the provincial government will continue to struggle for the allocation of equal shares in the 6th National Finance Commission Award , which has been delayed as the provinces could not arrive at a consensus.

Winding up a debate on the budget here on Thursday, the minister said he would take all the parliamentary parties into confidence on this (NFC) issue. If the centre would not release the extra Rs 2 billion, which represented an increase in net hydel profit, it would be very difficult for them to prepare the current budget, he added.

He said: "The credit for the present increase in the NHP goes to the entire House, which extended me full support by adopting a unanimous resolution for financial rights". He said all the political organisations, big or small, helped him whenever he had sought their support on the issue of provincial rights.

The NWFP government, minister said, would succeed in getting its Rs 345 billion in outstanding dues from Wapda, which had agreed to take up the issue with a mediation commission on this issue. "We want this amount to be passed on to the NWFP. We are short of development funds," he added.

Mr Haq told the House that he had proposed construction of 20 dams to Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, but the later agreed that the spadework on 10 projects be initiated. After the completion of these hydel projects, NWFP would be self-sufficient in reservoirs of irrigation water and embrace a green revolution, he observed.

When Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal came into power, he said, most of the industrial units were closed, but they had made 144 units in running position by taking some concrete measures.

The provincial government had provided training to about 20,000 youth in various disciplines at the vocational centres across the NWFP. "Each of them had been provided with Rs 5,000 for equipments," he added.

The government had decided to exempt all three to five marla houses from property tax, but the order would come into effect after June 30, Mr Haq told the House. The World Bank, he said, had released the stalled amount of the SAP-II to the NWFP government after expressing its confidence in the financial management of the province.

He said interest-free economy was not MMA's promise, it was God's order to introduce it in Muslim countries. It was part of our faith to get the country rid of interest-based economy, for which they MMA was continuing its struggle, he added.

He said the MMA government had caught a big smuggler and fined him Rs 24 million for causing huge losses to forests. He said forests were national assets and the MMA would not allow anybody to destroy them.

The minister denied that the bureaucracy was running the show in the province and that ministers were powerless or dependent on their secretaries.

He said in the presence of parliament the bureaucracy could not dare to call the shots. The government would bring the Hisba Act soon in the assembly as it would help reduce burden on judiciary, he added.