He added the Center would go by the Constitution unless the provinces come up with a consensus on the issue. Under the fifth NFC award, 57 percent of the resources will go to Punjab, while Sindh will get 23 percent share from the divisible pool, with NWFP and Balochistan getting 13 and 5 percent respectively.
When contacted, a senior official of the Punjab government told Business Recorder on the condition of anonymity that the differences between Sindh and Balochistan on inclusion of revenue and personal income tax in basic parameters of the NFC was the real hurdle in reaching a consensus on the issue.
He said Balochistan opposed Sindh, in previous meeting held in Islamabad, on the subject and demanded that the Sindh government should show flexibility in its demands.
Balochistan argued that Sindh's demand of making personal income tax as basic principle for distribution of resources from divisible pool among the provinces was negation of the federation, as public sector institutions were main sources of better personal income in Sindh.
Balochistan's representative argued that inclusion of personal income tax in basic principle of the NFC would simply mean increasing disparity in income between the provinces.
As per decision of the Islamabad meeting, Sindh and Balochistan were to meet separately to reach understanding on the controversial issues and then sit with the NWFP and Punjab to workout a detailed formula for distribution of resources among the parties. Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz had facilitated a meeting of the provinces in Islamabad some time back and urged their representatives to show flexibility and accommodate each other for reaching a workable solution to lingering controversy on the NFC.
At the end of the meeting, Sindh and Balochistan had agreed to resolve differences within a week, to pave way for the inter-provincial meeting for working out a viable formula for the new NFC award, but they could not even meet at any level to discuss the controversy.