ISLAMABAD, Sept 7: Smaller provinces are reported to be against the federal government's plan to reconstitute the National Finance Commission (NFC), saying that nothing has changed since June 2004 and the prime minister continues to be its chairman.

According to informed sources, the provinces are also worried that the appointment of Dr Salman Shah as adviser to the prime minister on finance and economic affairs could result in a clash of interest and engender a sense of deprivation among the smaller provinces because till recently he represented Punjab as a consultant on the NFC and public finance.

Dr Salman Shah was not available for comments. Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said in his recent interview to Dawn that the NFC would be reconstituted in a month or so to get all the stakeholders together to resolve the issue.

Talking to Dawn, Sindh's Finance Minister Syed Sardar Ahmad said he believed there was no need for reconstituting the NFC because none of its members had been changed and the prime minister was still its chairman.

When asked whether the adviser to the prime minister could act as chairman or the federal government's member in place of the federal finance minister, he said he could not because "the federal finance minister should represent the federal government".

The minister said if the prime minister nominated someone else to represent him in the NFC he would cease to be the finance minister - the portfolio Prime Minister Aziz has retained with himself.

Balochistan Finance Minister Syed Ehsan Shah said only the federal finance minister and provincial finance ministers were official members of the NFC, besides private members from the provinces.

In reply to a question, he said the federal government could not give any assignment relating to the NFC to the adviser to the prime minister on finance on moral grounds and hoped that it would not do so.

Replying to another question, Mr Shah said it would have to be seen from the legal point of view whether the minister of state for finance could represent the federal government in the NFC.

He said the composition of the NFC was clearly defined in the Constitution as Article 160 (1) says: "Within six months of the commencing day and thereafter at intervals not exceeding five years, the president shall constitute a National Finance Commission consisting of the minister of finance of the federal government, the ministers of finance of the provincial governments and such other persons as may be appointed by the president after consultation with the governors of the provinces."

A senior official of the NWFP government said none of the provincial governments had expressed its desire to change its private members. The finance ministers of all the four provinces remained unchanged for the last two years and the prime minister continued to hold the portfolio of the federal finance minister. Hence, there was no legal, constitutional or moral ground for the federal government to reconstitute the NFC, he added.