KARACHI: A petition was filed in the Sindh High Court on Thursday against the constitution of 10th National Finance Commission Award seeking its reconstitution.

Economist Dr Kaiser Bengali through his lawyer petitioned the SHC and submitted that the notification of the 10th NFC Award was issued in violation of Article 160 of the Constitution since direct and effective consultations were not made in appointments of its members.

The petitioner, who had been a member of NFC thrice in the past representing Sindh and Balochistan, further contended that appointment of additional members of 10th NFC were made without due consultation with the governors of the provinces.

He also raised objection over the adviser to the prime minister on finance for heading the NFC and argued that the adviser cannot retain the authority to chair or convene the NFC proceedings/meetings whether in the absence of the federal finance minister or even otherwise and the same was ultra vires to the Constitution.

The petitioner impleaded the federation of Pakistan through the federal finance secretary and the secretary of cabinet division, NFC through finance division and province of Sindh through its finance secretary and the chief secretary as respondents in the petition.

He maintained that the terms of reference mentioned in the 10th NFC notification issued on May 12 were beyond the scope of Article 160 of the Constitution since issues such as public debt, rationalisation of subsidies and losses of state-owned corporations were not within the domain of the commission, but the jurisdictions of other constitutional forums like the Council of Common Interests or National Economic Council.

He further asserted that certain terms of reference deal with budgetary issues which were dealt with by separate articles of the Constitution and did not fall within the ambit of the commission, adding that issues of allocation of resources for Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan as well as expenditures for security were the sole competence of federal government and parliament and have no bearing on the commission’s proceedings.

The petitioner argued that if the principle of the provinces picking up tab for the federal government’s expenditures was established, a demand may arise from the provinces to collect all the taxes themselves and reimburse the federal government’s expenditures and subsequently the federal structure will roll on its head and the stage may be set for creating a de facto confederation.

He was of the view that One Unit gave birth to nationalist movements in Sindh mainly rooted in anti-Punjab sentiment, but 18th Amendment and 7th NFC award served to demolish this aspect of Sindh’s politics and maintained that the 2010 amendment and award had served to bond the federating units and strengthened national unity. Undermining the 18th Amendment and 7th NFC was likely to provide oxygen to the separatist agenda.

The lawyer for the petitioner, Advocate Basil Nabi Malik, pleaded to declare the May 12 notification for constitution of 10th NFC, the appointments of its additional members and terms of reference illegal and unlawful.

He also sought direction for respondents for reconstitution of the 10th NFC in accordance with Article 160 and to declare that the adviser to PM on finance could not head or convene the meetings of NFC.

The lawyer also sought a retaining order against the May 12 notification till the final order on this petition.

Published in Dawn, June 12th, 2020