- Withholding the financial rights violation of Constitution: Gandapur.
- Chief minister denounces continuation of 7th NFC Award since 2010.
- Laments exclusion of population, poverty indicators from KP’s share.
PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur has written to President Asif Ali Zardari urging him to convene the 10th National Finance Commission (NFC) meeting over the financial exclusion of merged districts, The News reported on Saturday.
Gandapur has highlighted that the 25th Constitutional Amendment in 2018, which merged the erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) with KP, 5.7 million residents of the merged districts remain financially marginalised and deprived of their rightful share.
The CM’s letter follows KP Assembly’s resolution, passed in January, calling for a new NFC Award where the federal government and provinces must allocate an extra 3% share for the merged districts of the province.
The two-page resolution stated that at the time of the merger of the then tribal areas into KP, the special commission led by the Sartaj Aziz (late) had decided that 3% share from the federal divisible pool and Rs100 billion per annum for 10 years would be allocated for the development of merged districts of the province.
It said that since 2018, the federal government had to pay Rs 700 billion to KP as per Rs 100 billion under the AIP or Accelerated Implementation Plan, but the province received only Rs 132.1 billion till 2024 while the federal government and other provinces had not given 3% share for merged districts in the national resources.
After the merger of tribal areas into KP, the province should have been paid Rs 360 billion till 2024.
Meanwhile, in his letter to the president, Gandapur underscored that the population, geographical area and poverty indicators of the merged districts have not been factored into KP’s share of the federal divisible pool, with funds instead retained by the federal government.
“Despite the constitutional merger, withholding the financial rights of the people of ex-FATA is an outright violation of the Constitution,” he said.
Gandapur denounced the continued extension of 7th NFC Award, which has remained unchanged since 2010, despite the region’s merger.
He maintained that this practice not only contradicts Article 160 of the Constitution but also breaches the commitments made under the 25th Constitutional Amendment. “KP cannot accept the unconstitutional, unfair and anti-federal extension of an obsolete NFC Award that excludes its rightful share,” he warned.
Calling for urgent action, the CM urged the president to immediately convene the long-overdue 10th NFC meeting, stressing that an outdated award that no longer aligns with constitutional realities cannot be extended any further.
It is to be noted that in a recent press conference, the provincial chief executive he had decided to take the case to the Supreme Court as Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was not listening to them. However, he said that Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Asim Munir had assured him of resolving the issue with the federal government through negotiations.
It seems that the chief minister has lost patience and decided to write a letter to the president and seek his legal assistance in resolving this longstanding issue with the federal government.
The KP government has been facing a host of challenges but the major issue is the deteriorating law and order problem in the tribal districts and adjoining areas of the province, particularly the southern belt including Bannu, Lakki Marwat, Karak, Tank and Dera Ismail Khan.
The province, particularly the newly appointed provincial police chief Zulfiqar Hameed, has been complaining about the lack of modern weapons for the police force, saying the militants are better equipped than the police.
However, the majority of militants are using automatic AK-47 assault rifles, the same arms used by the police force.
The only modern gadget that the militants have used in some of the nighttime attacks was the night vision goggles which they had acquired in Afghanistan.
