ISLAMABAD: The Sindh government and all opposition parties in the Senate protested on Thursday over delay in reconstitution of the National Finance Commission (NFC).

The reconstituted NFC had become non-functional when the Punjab government appointed its private member, Dr Ayesha Ghous Pasha, as finance minister before presentation of the provincial budget in June this year.

Since then Sindh has been asking the federal government to reconstitute the NFC so that discussions on the future award could be started.

The centre has also been asking the Punjab government to nominate its non-statutory member, so that the NFC could be reconstituted, but in vain.

The five-year constitutional arrangement for distribution of resources among the provinces and the centre had expired on June 30 and all parties were compelled to empower the president to extend the previous arrangement till announcement of the new award.

On Thursday, NFC member from Sindh and former federal financeminister Salim H. Mandviwala protested over the `non-serious attitude of the federal government on the delay of NFC` and accused it of making the constitutional forum redundant.

Senators belonging to the PPP, PTI, ANP, PML-Q and MQM staged a walkout in protest. The token walkout followed a statement by Chairman Raza Rabbani, saying that Finance Minister Ishaq Dar had not turned up to join the debate on NFC despite his prior commitment.

Rabbani told the house that it was irresponsible on the part of the finance minister because the debate on implementation status of the NFC award was arranged with Dar`s consent and on the basis of his scheduled return from Kuwait.

`Convey my displeasure,` said the chairman.

Hasil Bizenjo of the National Party said the NFC had long been overdue and it should have been taken seriously by the government because all the provinces had stakes in the revenue-sharing arrangement.

He said many countries in the world had now independent institutions on the issue and NFC should not remain under any ministry orthe prime minister.

Ilyas Bilour of the ANP deplored that the new award was due in July, but the federal government was using delaying tactics.

He said the previous NFC award had allocated one per cent of total revenue to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on account of war on terror expenses which should continue.

Mandviwala told the house that the federal government was violating the constitution by delaying the ninth NFC award for the past six months.

`The federal government appears to be notinterestedin the new NFC award, as during the past two and half years it has called only a single meeting on the NFC.

The failure of NFC was another example of bad governance of the PML-N government, he said.

Mandviwala said the Sindh government had requested the federal government several times to call a meeting on new NFC award and other provinces had also been protesting over the delay, but nothing happened. This is a violation of the constitution.

He wondered who stopped Punjab not to nominate non-statutory member in NFC. `The absenceof Punjab`s member has made the NFC dysfunctional virtually.

He said Dar had a few months ago stated that he had asked the Punjab chief minister to nominate the provincial member.

Mandviwala said that the centre was only busy in praising the development of the Punjab government and depriving other provinces of their constitutional rights.

Development should not be a speciñcarea,butitshould be equalfor all areas, he added.

He alleged that the federal government was providing higher funds to Punjab which was creating a sense of deprivation among other provinces. Smaller provinces, he said, would be left behind in the race of development.

He said the KP and Sindh were fighting the war on terror, but they were not being provided adequate funds for the purpose.

He claimed that the federal government was constitutionally bound toincrease the share of the provinces in every NFC award and it could not deprive them of their rights.

`The goals of sustainable development committed with the UN could not be achieved without the new NFC,` he added.