In a bid to make changes to the much-debated 18th Amendment and the National Finance Commission (NFC) Award, the federal government has contacted several political parties and has been able to get some support on its decision, a local news outlet reported on Sunday.
The report came a day after the government contacted the opposition parties to take them on board regarding the new National Accountability Bureau (NAB) law.
The 18th Amendment was passed in 2010 to provide the provinces with significant decision-making autonomy, whereas the NFC Award pertains to the resource distribution formula among the provinces.
The NFC Award is a constitutional obligation. According to Article 160 of the Constitution, after every five years the president will constitute the NFC for a period of five years. Last year, President Dr Arif Alvi had reconstituted the ninth NFC to formulate a new resource distribution formula between the Centre and federating units.
Ever since the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) came into power, the opposition has accused it of conspiring to roll back the 18th Amendment.
In April 2019, President Alvi had hinted at possible changes to the 18th Amendment but ruled out any possibility of it being revoked. The president had said that the amendment could be modified for improvements but only with consensus among all federating units. He had called for capacity building of provinces, saying that improvements were direly required in governance and reforms, particularly in the taxation system.
Days later, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari had lashed out at the government, saying that hell would break loose if efforts were made for bringing a ‘One Unit’ system.
Later, in June 2019, the PPP chief had once again vowed to protect provincial autonomy, saying that his party would not compromise on the 18th Amendment and the NFC Award for the provinces.
Recently, the amendment once again came under the spotlight when the federal and provincial governments used it as a basis for debating and arguing over their different approaches towards the coronavirus pandemic.
