Amendment in Article 160 (3A): Government engaged with PML-N through backdoor channels?

The government is reportedly engaged with Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) through backdoor channels to amend Article 160 (3A) of the Constitution which disallows any reduction in the share of provinces from the divisible pool taxes agreed in the seventh National Finance Commission (NFC) award.

In the 342-member National Assembly, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) with 156 seats and 25 from allies (MQM-P 7, PML-Q 5, GDA 3, and BAP 5, BNP 4 and AML 1) would still require another 47 members to secure a two-third majority to amend the constitution.

PML-N with 84 members in the lower house can take the government numbers to 240 and enable it to easily pass the amendment.

In the 104-seat Senate, the PTI has 15 seats with a total strength of PTI-led ruling coalition at 38 members. With support from PML-N's 33 senators, a two-third majority to amend Article 160 (3A) can be achieved.

However, senior PML-N leader Ahsan Iqbal dismissed any possibility of PML-N joining hands with PTI over NFC award amendment. "We do not support any reversal in provincial rights," he told Business Recorder.

He denied that the government has shared any draft of the proposed amendment in Article 160 (3A) with the PML-N so far adding that the 18th Amendment was unanimously passed by the National Assembly in 2010 and any attempt to amend it would create conflicts between the provinces and the centre

However background interviews with informed party leaders suggest that the PML-N may vote in favour of the proposed amendment if the Sharif brothers and other senior party leaders are provided relief in legal cases pending against them in different courts.

"There are serious cases against our top leadership in general and the Sharifs in particular. In such a scenario to annoy powerful quarters by opposing the amendment may not be an option for us. Notwithstanding our stated opposition to the proposed amendment ground realities may compel us to vote in its favour," said a senior party leader, requesting anonymity.

As per the seventh NFC award announced in 2010, the provinces agreed to the formula with multiple indicators instead of population alone, a long standing demand of the smaller provinces: population 82 percent, poverty/backwardness 10.3 percent, revenue collection/generation 5 percent and inverse population density 2.70 percent.

This effectively implied Punjab's share declined from 53.2 percent of the divisible pool taxes to 51.74 percent, while the share of the three remaining provinces rose - Sindh's share rose from 24.96 percent to 25.21 percent, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's (KPK) to 16.24 from 14.78 percent and Balochistan's share from 6.8 percent to 9.09 percent.

The Center's share declined to 42.5 percent after the seventh NFC award which the federal government maintains is not even sufficient to meet the federal government's defense and debt servicing payments.