There is a strong rumour circulating in the corridors of power that the imminent tabling of the twenty-eighth constitutional amendment, openly acknowledged by members of the Cabinet, envisages the re-insertion of the constitutional clause that would allow the National Finance Commission (NFC) to reduce the share of the provinces in any subsequent award.

This would be the second attempt as the government abandoned this particular clause in the twenty-sixth constitutional amendment after strong opposition by the Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP).

An NFC meeting chaired by the Finance Minister was held on 4 December, but he failed to convince the provinces to share their expenditures with the federal government. Their rationale: the constitution does not allow the Centre to seek these details.

However, it was agreed to set up subgroups/committees to discuss various aspects of the award, which brings to mind the proverb ‘a camel is a horse designed by a committee’.

Successive administrations have repeatedly violated a clause of the constitution pertaining to the NFC notably that it be constituted every five years to review and recommend a new award, given that the last NFC award agreed under the chairmanship of Shaukat Tarin, the then Finance Minister, was twenty-five years ago. And that had taken the then President Zardari’s talent for “reconciliation” to compel Punjab-led by Shehbaz Sharif to agree to a reduction in the population criteria to 82 percent in return for the eighteenth constitutional amendment clause that would allow Nawaz Sharif to become the prime minister for a third time.

The fourteen finance ministers since 2010, including those appointed for a very short period (pending notification of the successor), caretakers and repeat appointments (fuelling the widespread lament that they were allowed to use a revolving door even though they had failed to deliver in the past) were unable to create a consensus on the NFC.

Even Tarin’s immediate........

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