No PFC award announced for Sindh local councils in past 13 years

KARACHI: The local bodies’ councils in the Sindh province remained deprived from the provincial finance commission (PFC) award for the last 13 years, ARY NEWS reported.

According to sources, the incumbent local bodies system will complete its four-year tenure after six months but the provincial government is still in a denial mode for appointing the commission aimed at disbursing the provincial resources to the grass root level.

It is pertinent to mention here that the financial resources are disbursed among the local councils as per the urban-rural quota on the basis of a census conducted in 1998 and it was in 2007 when the last PFC award was announced in the province.

“Since then there is no PFC award, therefore the provincial budget is not distributed as per the agreed quota,” they said adding that even the PPP-led Sindh Assembly had passed a resolution for the announcement of PFC award in July 2019 but no implementation is made on it yet.

They further said that as per the award, the financial resources are disbursed in the province keeping in view the factors including population, poverty, and revenue collection.

The sources said that there seems no chance that the incumbent provincial government would announce the PFC award before the expiry of the term of the incumbent union councils representatives.

On February 03, lashing out at the Sindh government, Karachi Mayor Wasim Akhtar said that the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) led provincial government has paralyzed the local-body institutions.

Talking to journalists, Wasim Akhtar demanded of the Sindh government to release the Provincial Finance Commission (PFC) award and hoped that the Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah will mull over their proposals.

The Karachi mayor maintained that the provincial government cannot escape from its responsibilities through empty claims and statements.