ISLAMABAD: Senate Chairman Mian Raza Rabbani on Tuesday said it was being propagated that provinces do not have the capacity which was an excuse to deny them the rights guaranteed by the Constitution.

Addressing a policy dialogue on `Future of fiscal federalism in Pakistan issues and options` at the Comsats Institute of Information Technology here, he underscored the need for the strict implementation of the 18th constitutional amendment.

He also called for the early announcement of the National Finance Commission (NFC) Award.

The dialogue was jointly organised by Rural Development Policy Institute, Inter-University Consortium for Promotion of Social Sciences and the Centre for Policy Studies and Comsats.

The Senate chairman said the NFC Award should be given on time after every five years. In reply to questions, Mr Rabbani said universities were the pillars of higher education system and a hub of innovation, knowledge creation and ideas. They must have autonomy from all extraneous influences in order to govern and manage their academic, administrative and financial functions.

He said this would be the second budget under 7th NFC Award and it was unfortunate that the award was being delayed only because one province had failed to nominate its member.

He said the items on the federal legislative list Part-II were under the legislative and administrative control in terms of policy and supervision of the Council of Common Interest (CCI).

Therefore, it will be appropriate if the budget pertaining to these items and their related departments was approved by the CCI, not the cabinet. A Reporter