AGP hints before IHC at withdrawal of NFC notification.

ISLAMABAD -- During the hearing of a petition of Engineer KhurramDastgir Khan Member National Assembly (MNA) belonging to Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) challenging the notification regarding constitution of National Finance Commission (NFC), Attorney General of Pakistan Monday hinted before a division bench of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) to withdraw the same.

The dual bench comprising Chief Justice of IHC Justice AtharMinallah conducted hearing of the petition. In this regard, a single bench of IHC comprising Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb earlier suggested to constitute a dual bench to conduct hearing of the petition and sent the file of the case to Chief Justice of IHC Justice AtharMinallah for approval. During the hearing, the attorney general informed the court that one member of NFC JavedJabbar had already resigned from the commission. He added that he would suggest the government to issue new notification for the formation of NFC.

The AG requested the court to grant two to three weeks' time as a new notification would be issued during this time. Acceding to his plea, the IHC bench deferred the hearing till July 22 for further proceedings in this matter.

In this matter, the petitioner's lawyer adopted that the Constitution of Pakistan explicitly states that the country is to be run by elected representatives. He contended that nowhere in the constitution does it state that the PM's adviser on finance can be the convener instead of the finance minister. The NFC is meant to distribute financial resources among the federal government and the provinces. It includes distribution of taxes collected by the federal government which form a divisible pool.

According to Article 160 of the Constitution, the president constitutes the NFC after every five years for a period of five years. Once there is a consensus of all stakeholders on a particular formula to distribute the finances, the award is implemented for the next five years.

The PTI-led federal government on May 12 formed the 10th NFC to announce the new award. The Ministry of Finance notified constitution of the 11-member commission after approval by federal and provincial members and its terms of reference by President ArifAlvi.

The commission will, however, effectively...