DAILY TIMES

31st May 2016

ISLAMABAD: Senate Chairman Mian Raza Rabbani on Tuesday said that the centre-centric mindset, having roots in all political parties and bureaucracy, was against implementing 18th constitutional amendment in its true spirit.

Speaking at a seminar – titled “Policy dialogue future of fiscal federalism in Pakistan, he said that the British colonialism still haunts people here in Pakistan. The federation could not be strengthened without granting monetary powers to the Senate, he added.

He said that the civil society and youth should play their role to put the country on right track. The seminar was organised by the Rural Development Policy Institute (RDPI) and the Inter-University Consortium on Promotion of Social Sciences Centre for Policy Studies of the COMSATS Institute of Information Technology.

The Senate chairman said that powers of small federating units must not be grabbed as such adventure could pose serious dangers to the federation. “It is imperative to announce the National Finance Commission Award (NFC) each year,” he said, and demanded census for correct allocation of resources.

He said that the provinces should constitute their own provincial NFCs for resource allocation to lower tiers of the province.