PESHAWAR: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leader and former provincial minister Taimur Saleem Khan Jhagra on Tuesday petitioned the Peshawar High Court 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.

In the petition, Mr Jhagra requested the court to declare the non-issuance of a fresh NFC Award illegal, given significant changes in the “legal and factual realities” in the country, including the devolution of various subjects to provinces in line with 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 issue a new NFC Award in line with the constitutional mandate and immediately release KP’s share for development projects.

PTI leader also complains centre not meeting ex-Fata’s financial obligations

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 terror, revenue generation, and other relevant factors following the 25th Constitutional Amendment.

In the petition filed through senior lawyer Ali Gohar Durrani, Mr Jhagra sought an interim relief in the shape of the court’s orders for the convening of the regular NFC and CCI meetings.

The respondents named 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.

The petitioner said Fata was merged with KP through the 25thConstitution Amendment in 2018.

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

“This task should have been accompanied by an adjustment of the 7thNFC 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 7thNFC 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 insisted.

Mr Jhagra said 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 the settled districts of 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 petitioner, 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.

“Throughout this period, the budget grants by the federal government for the former Fata were made without any formal engagement with the provincial government or the provincial finance department,” he complained.

The PTI leader claimed that the federal government’s grants for tribal districts didn’t even cover the increase in pay announced by the federal government itself.

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

“This does not even touch the issue of the extra three per cent NFC share promised to the people of Fata but there is no headway on this from the federal government and the federal bureaucracy,” he insisted.

Mr Jhagra said the federal government was usurping his rights by diverting the NFC share meant for him and other residents of settled districts to the erstwhile Fata.

Published in Dawn, July 24th, 2024