Politics take a divisive turn
Unlike the 7th NFC Award which was passed unanimously during the last PPP tenure, there seems to be little effort this time in evolving a consensus on the next Award. The 7th Award had removed a major source of grievance among the provinces and reined in the rising parochial tendencies in smaller federal units. Little attempt at forging a consensus seems to have been made this time, as indicated by another meeting of the NFC having failed to smooth over sticking points that include issues like strengthening the tax base with improvements in the FBR, provincial autonomy in taking revenue generating decisions, and financial arrangements for the erstwhile FATA after its merger with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
In the previous meeting, the Sindh Chief Minister had raised the issue of lower fund transfer from Islamabad to all provinces and claimed that in the first six months of the current fiscal year, Sindh was paid Rs 60 billion less than the corresponding period last year. Keen to widen the PTI’s political influence in Sindh, Prime Minister Imran Khan has announced a Rs162 billion development package for Karachi. Besides, the federal government has promised that it will now itself implement the Karachi Integrated Intelligent Transport System for the under-construction Green Line Bus Rapid Transit project. Hopefully one will not find a repetition of the still incomplete Peshawar BRT project where the cost has gone up from Rs 49 billion to over Rs 68 billion. while after missing several deadlines, uncertainty continues to loom over the launch of the service.
In yet another divisive move, Brig (retd) Ijaz Shah was appointed federal Parliamentary Affairs Minister. The appointment is being taken as a grave provocation by both the PPP and the PML-N. The late Benazir Bhutto had suspected the appointee of conspiring to eliminate her and the PML-N had accused him of using the Punjab Home Department for political victimisation. Meanwhile the PTI government continues to be in confrontationist mode. Mr Khan still declines to attend the National Assembly, refuses to interact directly with the leaders of the opposition in both Houses and the Information Minister ridicules the opposition leaders on a daily basis. This attitude is bound to add to the already present intolerance in society.
