PESHAWAR: Peshawar High Court on Wednesday issued notices to the federal and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governments and other respondents, seeking their separate replies to a petition against the federal government’s “failure to issue the new National Finance Commission Award as required by the Constitution and meet the financial obligations” of the erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas (now merged tribal districts).

A bench consisting of Justice Ijaz Anwar and Justice Syed Arshad Ali issued the order after holding a preliminary hearing into the petition of former provincial minister and PTI leader Taimur Saleem Jhagra, who wanted the non-issuance of a fresh NFC Award to be declared an illegal act in the wake of the devolution of various subjects to provinces under the Constitution (Eighteenth Amendment) Act, the merger of Fata with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and the 2017 population census.

He requested the court to order a revised NFC Award to determine Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s share to “eliminate the existing disparity.”

The PTI leader also sought the court’s orders for the government to announce the new NFC Award in line with its constitutional mandate and immediately release KP’s share for development projects.

Jhagra calls for revised Award to determine KP’s share to ‘eliminate disparity’

He said the Council of Common Interests should be told to convene a meeting to ensure equitable allocation of resources through the issuance of the NFC Award and related development plans, considering an increase in the province’s population, poverty levels and illiteracy rate, war on terrorism, revenue generation, and other relevant factors following the 25th Constitutional Amendment.

The respondents in the petition included the country’s president through his principal secretary, the federal government through the secretary of the Cabinet Division, secretary of the Finance Division, the NFC, the CCI and the National Economic Council through the respective secretaries, and the KP government through its chief secretary and finance secretary.

Advocate Ali Gohar Durrani appeared for the petitioner and said that Fata was merged with KP through the 25th Constitutional Amendment in 2018.

He added that the KP government and residents assumed the task of mainstreaming ex-Fata as their national responsibility on behalf of the entire federation and its constituent governments.

The lawyer said that the task should have been accompanied by an adjustment of the 7th NFC Award, which governed distribution of resources between the federal and provincial governments, since the formula did not cater for the area and population of ex-Fata as part of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

“The 7th NFC Award should have been defunct and updated anyway after the publishing of the census of 2017 that changed the population shares of all four provinces. This alone should have resulted in an increase in the share of Pakhtunkhwa to the tune of 0.6 per cent of the total award,” he said.

Mr Durrani contended that in the absence of a new NFC, the financing requirements of ex-Fata, in their totality, remained a responsibility of the federal government, as the NFC share of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa pertained only to the population of settled districts in the province.

He contended that until 2021-22, the federal government did finance the entirety of the cost of ex-Fata, after engaging with the provincial government and the provincial department and ministry of finance.

The lawyer, however, said from 2022-23 onward, the federal government stopped the practice in violation of its constitutional duty and the provincial government wrote several letters to it and made several attempts to resolve the issue, but to no avail.

He added that that throughout that period, the budgetary grants by the federal government for the former Fata were made without any formal engagement with the provincial government or the provincial finance department.

Mr Durrani claimed that the federal government’s grants for tribal districts didn’t even cover the increase in pay announced by the federal government.

He added that the deficit in financing during the last three years had totaled over Rs150 billion, with all that to be borne by the province from its share in NFC Award.

Published in Dawn, October 31st, 2024