The NWFP government is preparing its case for presentation in the National Finance Commission (NFC) meeting. The two representatives of the provincial government on the commission, Minister for Finance Mohammad Humayun Khan and Senator Haji Mohammad Adeel, held meeting on Thursday and discussed ways and means as to how to represent the NWFP in the National Finance Commission.
The federating units are demanding meeting of the commission since long. But the Federal government has not yet announced schedule for it. In the present situation and lack of the fulltime federal minister for finance, the Prime Minister would have to chair the meeting.
Member, technical of the commission, Senator Haji Mohammad Adeel, when contacted, said that they had raised the matter with Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani on a number of occasions. Furthermore, he said that the Chief Minister had also raised the matter, and added that he himself had raised the matter in the Senate.
However, he said they did not know when the Federal government would convene the meeting of the Finance Commission. He said that a consensus on the formula for the distribution of the national resources would not be possible in a single meeting. He said that the existing award was announced by the President after the four provinces failed to evolve consensus despite holding meetings for one year.
Haji Adeel said that they were looking to towards Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani for convening the meeting of NFC. The commission, he said, would prepare recommendations for the diistribution of the resources. He said he was confident that the President would do justice with the small federating units. According to the finance minister, the meeting was held on the directive of Chief Minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti, who asked the members to finalise the province's case.
He said the members reviewed technicalities and discussed the names of some former senior bureaucrats for inclusion in the preparation of the case for the province. The bureaucrats whose name discussed were three former top civil servants - Riaz Noor, Saeedullah Jan and Ejaz Ahmad Qureshi - while the sitting Finance Secretary would also be kept on board.
The two members are also expected to meet the Chief Minister within two or three days to discuss development and approval of the name of the retired bureaucrats. Both members exchanged views on the overall achievements so far made by the NFC during the previous MMA government, and pledged that all the long standing issues of the NWFP would be solved after evolving consensus among all the provinces.
Speaking on the occasion, the finance minister stated that the Federal government was extending all possible co-operation to the NWFP in terms of reducing its budgetary load. He said more than Rs 3.5 billion had been released to the NWFP in the wheat subsidy head, which would considerably help the province, overcome wheat shortage.
He said the Centre's assistance in the matter of IDPs was also encouraging and more constructive response was also expected from the NFC award. Senator Haji Adeel commended that the NWFP Finance Department's measures, and told the minister finance that he supported every move of the provincial government proposed for settling issues with the Federal government.
The finance minister expressed gratitude to Senator Haji Adeel for his constructive approach, and expressed the hope that his technical experience would enable the Finance Department to go ahead with the new and positive trends for the purpose to get better results from the NFC award. They also identified certain new developments to be taken with reference to the provincial issues due to the prevailing law and order situation, and hoped that with mutual understanding, all the matters would be settled.
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