Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has delayed much overdue meeting of the Council of Common Interests (CCI) by one day and rescheduled it for tomorrow (Friday) instead of today (Thursday). Sources said earlier the 30th meeting of the CCI was scheduled to be held today (Thursday), with a seven-point agenda items, but due to unknown reasons, the meeting would now take place on Friday. In the agenda of the CCI, there is a proposal of Finance Division for allocation of National Security Fund out of divisible pool, the sources added.
Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has suggested a proposal to the provincial members of the NFC during the last meeting to allocate an additional 3 per cent to the Centre for meeting security expenses from the federal divisible pool. As the NFC members do no agree to the proposal for allocation of 3 per cent to the Centre for security expenditure from division, the federal government appears to have decided to take up the matter in the CCI.
Talking to Business Recorder after the last NFC meeting, member of NFC Balochistan government Qaisar Bengali, Senator Saleem Mandviwalla of Sindh government as well as Professor Ibrahim of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government maintained that provinces are not ready to accept the proposal, rather they want their share to be increased as more responsibilities have been transferred to the provinces after the 18th Constitutional Amendment.
Other agenda items for the CCI are to review the status of important decisions of the meetings held on 29th February and 25th March, 2016. The ministry of inter-provincial co-ordination agenda items for the CCI are; (i) inquiry into corruption charges of Karachi Canal; (ii) matters pertaining to higher education and other similar bodies in post-18th Amendment scenario; (iii) formulation of National Flood Protection Plan-IV (2015-25); (iv) import of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) and Liquefied Petroleum Gas Production and Distribution Policy 2015.
The meeting would also be submitted a proposal of Statistics Division with respect to sixth Population and Housing Census and SAFRON Division's proposal of reforms programme for Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) as well as National Forest Policy, 2015 of Ministry of climate Change and Cabinet Division's proposal for transfer of regulatory authorities from Cabinet Division to respective line ministries. The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources has also submitted a proposal of Flare Gas (FG) Utilisation Guidelines 2016 and Revision of Tight Gas (exploration & production) Policy, 2011.