KARACHI, Dec 8: Sindh Finance Minister Syed Sardar Ahmad has said that the resignation of Mr A. K. Lodhi as the private member of the National Finance Commission from Sindh is not going to create any crisis. He will be replaced by another nominee by the Sindh government, he added.
Responding to a question by Dawn about implications of the resignation, the minister pointed out that Mr Lodhi had been nominated in place of Mr Abdullah Memon, who was nominated in 2000 but later on resigned on health grounds.
Mr Ahmad said that there was nothing new in what Mr Lodhi revealed while announcing his resignation. The minister recalled that after the last NFC meeting, which broke down for want of consensus, was held in June. The stand taken by the Sindh government at that meeting was almost the same as Mr Lodhi narrated as his feelings.
In reply to another question, Syed Sardar Ahmad said that now when Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, who also holds the portfolio of finance minister, one could expect better response from him as he was aware of the grievances of smaller provinces and was himself the NFC chairman.
Sindh chief of the PPP Syed Qaim Ali Shah termed Mr Lodhi's resignation 'a right decision' which, he said, should have been taken long ago. Quoting Mr Lodhi as saying that NFC is a constitutional institution where the federation and provinces have an equal right to present their cases, Mr Shah observed that unfortunately, the NFC appeared dominated by the federation.
The basis of the Award over the past five years was not known to anyone, he added. Mr Shah, a former chief minister of Sindh, pointed out that the province had been suffering losses running into billions of rupees in the absence of a fair Award.
This year alone, he added, it would suffer a loss of over Rs23 billion. The provincial finance department had to rush to Islamabad with begging bowl every now and then, he observed.
The senior PPP leader recalled that for the last three years, only meetings were being held and no concrete decision was emerging. Now when Prime Minister himself is holding the portfolio of finance minister, he too had failed to take a decision with regard to the Award despite a lapse of several months.
Syed Qaim Ali Shah observed that nowhere in the world, an Award of this kind was announced on the basis of the population of a province. Even the GST was distributed on the basis of population in our country, he regretted, and recalled that the former prime minister Mian Nawaz Sharif, on the occasion of doing away with octroi system, had made the commitment that provinces' share in the GST would be increased.
He deplored that the federation's absolute control over financial resources had paralysed provinces as even the local government institutions had to look to the federal government for disbursing salaries of sweepers and other such lower staff.
Sardar Rahim, a member of the PML-N central committee, demanded that either the Council of Common Interests be revived immediately or the Sindh finance minister should also resign from the NFC because the federal government had failed to resolve any fundamental issue vis-à-vis the NFC Award. The failure, he said, had adversely affected Sindh's vital interests.
The PML-N leader pointed out that none of the constitutional institutions, including the NFC, in the country was being allowed to play its due role fairly and more strictly forbidden appeared to be those meant for ensuring justice with smaller provinces. He attributed the situation to the handling of all affairs by the military chief who had taken over the office of the head of state also.
"The issues of Kalabagh Dam, Greater Thal Canal, Gwadar Port, NFC Award, equitable distribution of irrigation water, royalty of natural gas and power generation, etc. all are being kept unresolved deliberately with an aim of dividing masses so that the 'uniformed democracy' could be perpetuated,'' he said. Sardar Rahim, who is also Vice-President of the Sindh ARD, remarked that the real issues could only be resolved by real representatives.