Gas Pipeline Blast in Baluchistan.

Society Pakistan & World Affairs
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Have you ever been to Saudi Arabia? Do you think tribal and feudal structures have been eradicated in that country? One would say they have been institutionalised at every level.
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Malik: I have spent a fair deal of time in Saudi Arabia, I'd say there quality of life for the average Saudi is still a lot better then most Baluchis? Wouldn't you?

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Wrong again. Here is the relevant article in the constitution of Pakistan to disprove that notion:-
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I referred to Parliamentry Democracy in a general form( general but nothing to do with generals!) not neccessarily PCO's democracy. Using India as an example (unfortunate example;) ) back around 1996, the BJP was the largest party but lacked a majority or any political allies. The BJP was invited by a Congress President to form the government. The government lost the vote of cofidence and Mr Vajpayee earned the dubious distinction of being the only Indian Prime Minister to have served as PM of India for the shortest time.

On another note it is my understanding that the PML(Q) was the largest party at the federal level, yet did not command a majority. Applying your principle and the fact that Jamali won by a single vote, why isn't Maulana Fazlur Rehman or Qureshi Prime Minister?

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If you want the central government to take charge of this, then be prepared for a more centralised and interfering federal government, which I am sure you are not in favour of?
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I believe the United States is an excellent example during it's civil war and the civil rights movement of Federal government intervention to prevent gross human rights abuses or in the case of natural disasters like droughts. In any case I don't advocate Federal government interference, I am advocating improving the condition of the average Baluchi by devolving greater financial control and powers to provincial and local governments. "Help the Baluchi's to help themselves"

I am not sure if you realise this but the Federal government of Pakistan is already one of the most overcentralised Federal governments in the World.

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Correct. PPP Lotas were bribed :smiley:

Brother Zakk, Jamali is on official tour of Gulf States.

Sui-Guddu gas line repaired

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Originally posted by Zakk:

That would have something to with the fact they are the largest oil producer in the world, don’t you think? I think you need to come up with a better example than Saudi Arabia to make comparisons for Balochistan.

Do you think that the constitutional article I quoted was from the PCO? Take a look yourself, and tell me…:slight_smile:

Well lets see shall we? When there was the vote for Prime Minister did Fazlur Rehman or Quereshi even get close to a majority of the votes? No. Did the ARD and MMA support one candidate in the final eventuality? No - they went their separate ways, with their own candidates. Is that another fact that you quite conveniantely missed out?

So going by what the Pakistani constitution (minus the PCO) says the government of Sindh was formed exactly in line with constitutional directives.

The post-civil war era was known as the “reconstruction period”, and involved the initial military occupation by the US federal government of the south, and federally-imposed changes to the societal and economic structure of the southern states. That involved a massive centralistaion of the power in the federal government, until the required changes were in place and then power was devolved back. If you want the federal government in Pakistan to change the feudal structures of Balochistan and Sindh, then more centralisation will occur, not less.

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  • Back to square one again.

  • Saboteurs bomb subsurface pipeline in Rohjan Tehsil; supply to Punjab, NWFP suspended

Two gas pipelines blown up again

LAHORE: The main gas pipeline to the Punjab and the NWFP from Sui was blown up again on Sunday night as the blast completely damaged two supply pipes of 30 inch and 20 inch diametre.

**The incident took place inside Balochistan, a few kilometres away from Sui. Initial reports suggested the saboteurs dug out the subsurface supply line and blew it up with a bomb. This main supply line catered to around 45 per cent needs of the total gas requirement of the Punjab and the NWFP. The channels supply 600 million cubic/feet from the total of 1000 mc/ft of gas every day to Punjab and the NWFP.

Soon after the explosion, the pressure in the pipes started decreasing and complete suspension of gas supply was expected by early Monday.

The big explosion was followed by a huge fireball, which could be seen from miles. The SNGPL teams were despatched to the spot and the restoration work was underway. The SNGPL officials believed the gas supply could be restored within a day or so. The extent of the on-the-spot damage could not be estimated as the restoration operations were on. However, the dried pipes will cause loss in millions as the entire gas-dependant industry in Punjab and the NWFP would be affected.**

The SNGPL officials confirmed the attack and said the impact of the explosion would not be much different from the last explosion. The first explosion took place in the Punjab in the Rohjan Tehsil, some 18 miles away from Sui. The government had imposed night-curfew in the area, yet the subvertive activities continued.

As a result, the SNGPL management closed down or curtailed the gas supply to the general industry, including textile, steel, paper, soap, ceremics and etc in the Punjab and the NWFP. Besides this, the company has also stopped the supply of gas to around 300 CNG stations all over the Punjab and the NWFP.

The SNGPL requested the consumers to extend maximum cooperation at this crucial stage and close down their gas room heaters and gas water heaters so that the company can continue the supply of gas to them for cooking purposes besides supplying gas to the hospitals and other places. The suspension of gas from Sui fields will result in a financial loss of around Rs 60 million per day to the SNGPL, while the loss of the general industries as well as CNG stations will also go into millions of rupees.

  • Monitoring Desk adds: Two gas pipelines burst near Sui-Kashmor Road after an explosion on late Sunday night, the Geo TV reported. The TV said that the pipeline caught fire after the blast in 20 and 30 inches diameters pipelines, which supplies gas to the Punjab. The flames could be seen from 18 kilometres, it added. The report also said the gas supply to the Punjab and the NWFP has been suspended again.

Here’s a scenorio: Two tribes were fighting, ended up blowin’ Gas pipelines, which was not they were aimin’ to. Now, they got the chance to pin down the Govt., askin’ for new agreement, as Nawab Bugti said in an exclusive interview with DAWN.

He confessed that: Two clans of the Bugti and Mazari tribes are involved in the new armed clashes.

Blowin’ up Pipelines wasn’t their intentions at all. Now, they do.

On another note, he mentioned: **Despite assurances and promise by the prime minister and the chief minister of Balochistan no progress was made in implementing the agreements and promises regarding giving the rights of local people. **

So, unless the Govt. doesn’t come up with new agreement with Bugtis, blowin’ of pipelines will continue despite of curfew.

Govts. of Punjab, Sindhi and Baluchistan asked Federal Govt. not to use force against Tribesmen.

**Sources said the provinces have proposed that Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali should immediately convene elders’ jirga of the warring tribes. The federal government was warned that if it used force against the warring tribes, its law and order agencies would not be able to control them, sources said.

Sources said an official of federal government was in favour of using force against tribesmen but no one supported the idea.**

PM Jamali is on official tour of Gulf States, therefore, this situation ain’t gonna cool down for a while.

Bugti men booked for sabotage

The Balochistan government registered the case against the tribesmen for allegedly blasting the pipeline at Rajanpur on the Punjab-Balochistan border five days ago, the spokesman for the interior ministry, Iftikhar Ahmed, told a press conference held at the ministry.

In reply to a question, Mr Ahmed said: **“No arrest has been made so far as the total population of the Bugti tribe is about 175,000 and it is very difficult to trace the people involved in the sabotage.” **

The spokesman said the area where the gas pipeline was blasted had remained no man’s land for a long time and it was still stated to be a “crime-free zone” due to presence of dacoits and outlaws there.

“The interior ministry has sent a letter to the prime minister’s secretariat to adopt a political way to resolve the problems of the area,”.

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PT: Very sad news, what the attackers don't udnerstand, is that rockets and mines don't discriminate. While I understand the concept of blood feuds, the danger to innocent lives is disgusting and the people who are doing this need to be disarmed and stopped. Before the Afgan war, these feuds were mostly settled through the point of a old fashioned gun. Now with the kalashinkov culture, people use rockets

Malik: Baluchistan is universally agreed to be a resource rich province. If it kept a larger share of the revenues earned from the use of those resources I think it is safe to assume there standard of living would improve.

You skipped my reference to Parliamentry Dmeocracy principles. Those principles are based on precedents, that means when the majority party is invited to form a government, it then has to prove it's majority. So if the PPP had been invited to form a government in Sindh and failed to prove it's majority the government would have collapsed and another government would have formed. That's called Democracy, the concept of co existence with the opposition.

What is not called Democracy is when Intelligence agencies and corrupt politicians offer money or compensation to MPA's or MNA's to defect or threaten them. Or when any majority party is deprived of it's right to attempt to form a government. What I mentioned as a first example of politicians using state resources and taxpayers money(remember it's the money we give to teh country everytime we buy a litre of petrol or buy anything with GST on it) to twist the concept of democracy is considered a criminal offence in a Democratic system.

Lastly, please explain to me what is the role of the Federal government if it is not supposed to promote development and positive values? Why do we even have a Federal government if it cannot help improve the condition of the most mineral rich, largest and most backward province?

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Spot on Brother Zakk,

Use of rockets, kalashinkov, and all that started in Jihad-ul-Haq era. We haven’t got over it yet. These tribesmen now, possess threat, if Federal Govt. goes after them without havin’ a dialouge, fresh agreement with them.

Thanks to Allah(SWT) no casualities were happened. Jamali should have cancelled his tour to Gulf States. His political skills test is on…

Let’s see if deployin’ troops would help to end this crisis.

More troops deployed at Gas Pipelines

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Some updates, much of the focus has been on the Bugti’s; here’s what the Mazari tribe are saying:

Situation to worsen, says Mazari leader

http://www.dawn.com/2003/text/nat13.htm
By Our Staff Reporter

LAHORE, Jan 27: An important leader of the Mazari tribe said on Monday that some criminals were exploiting the situation under the cloak of Mazari-Bugti tribe and the situation would worsen in the days to come if the government did not send paramilitary forces, the Rangers and Baloch levis to the areas where gas pipeline was being repeatedly sabotaged.

Shaukat Mazari, who is the deputy speaker of the Punjab Assembly after being elected from PP-250 (Rajanpur), told a group of reporters on Monday that he would take up the matter with Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi during a meeting with him on Tuesday. Then, he said, he would also approach the prime minister in a bid to set the situation right. He said the government would have to take some strong measures to restore normalcy.

Mazari is in contact with people in Rajanpur and Dera Ghazi Khan districts to keep himself abreast with the latest developments.

In the presence of reporters, he received a call that a deputy superintendent of police had been abducted along with his car. The captors released him after some time, but not the vehicle.

Mazari said there was an urgent need for strengthening local governments of Rajanpur, Dera Ghazi Khan, Jacobabad and Dera Bugti to prevent the situation from deteriorating further. At present, he said, being ill-equipped they were not in a position to deal with the criminals who were kidnapping targeted people in broad-day light.

According to him, there was a reaction among the local people who had not been provided Sui gas although pipelines feeding millions in the Punjab and the NWFP were passing through their areas. Similarly, he said, they felt angry because even ordinary jobs were being given to outsiders, making it difficult for the locals to earn their livelihood.

He rejected suggestions that Mazaris were responsible for whatever was happening in the troubled area. He said his tribe would settle its feuds with the Bugtis according to the tribal traditions without involving itself in any activity which damaged the national assets.

http://www.dawn.com/2003/text/nat14.htm
Mazari chief calls for tribal jirga

By Our Correspondent

DERA GHAZI KHAN, Jan 27: Former MNA and Mazari chief Mir Balakh Sher Mazari wants the government to demarcate the provincial border between the Punjab and Balochistan.

“This is one of the reasons of tension between the Bugtis and Mazaris,” he told Dawn by phone from Islamabad.

The ex-caretaker PM said the Bugti outlaws, by exploiting this (no demarcation) issue, had caused lawlessness in the area.

“There is no tribal war between us. The gas pipeline explosions are the result of complete lawlessness caused by the constant infiltration of the outlaws into the Mazari area,” he said.

He maintained that neither the provincial nor federal governments had taken notice of the alarming situation in Mazari Goth. He suggested the formation of an inter-tribal jirga to settle disputes between the two tribes.

He again claimed that it was not a tribal feud but anarchy created by the Bugti outlaws due to the negligence of administration of Kashmor, Rajanpur and Dera Bugti.

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Brother Zakk,

If you are following up the news closely, it was Mazari tribe who had stolen Electricity from Bugti tribe.

I sincerely hope, Govt. settle differential issue b/w them in peaceful matters.

Weather helps SNGPL meet domestic demand

**The Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) expects repair of both the damaged lines by Tuesday (today) noon that will enable it to restore supply to CNG stations by Wednesday and industry on Thursday. **

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Good to see Federal authorities takin’ up measures.

Officials offer talks to Bugtis over gas issue

MULTAN: The government has offered to negotiate and possibly increase lease payments to tribal chiefs in Balochistan, where key gas sources and pumping installations have been attacked, officials said on Tuesday.

Tribal leaders complain they are not paid enough to allow the pipeline through their lands and have called for a new agreement from state-run gas companies. “The government is open to negotiate any unsettled issues rather than resorting to damage to the oil and gas installations,” a government statement quoted Petroleum Minister Naurez Shakoor as saying. He said the government has asked oil exploration firms to resolve issues with local leaders.

Commenting on reports attributed to Nawab Akbar Bugti about the expiry of agreements and non-payment of dues to the Bugti tribe, official sources maintained that all payments were made as per accords signed. “All the national exploration and production companies, the PPL, OGDCL, SSGPL and SNGPL, were making all due payments to the Bugti tribe for use of their territory,” the sources said. “Any area of disagreement could be resolved through negotiations,” the sources said.

The sources, when asked, however, conceded that agreements made with the tribe expired on December 31, 2002 but said: “We are ready to renew them and, in fact, any delay in signing these agreements were due to reluctance shown from the other side.”

Replying to a question, the official sources pointed to what they called some areas of “disagreements” vis-a-vis these agreements. “Besides unilateral enhancement of rates (by the Bugti tribe), there is also a difference of opinion over the measurement of land being used by oil companies.” For instance in case of the OGDCL, they said, agreements were signed between the company and the tribe for the fields in Pirkoh and Loti and there was no problem in that.

However, there remained some differences over the size of land in the Uch area. The sources claimed that the OGDCL was making use of 1,100 acres of land for its field in Uch but the Bugti tribe was demanding rent for 4,300 acres of land. Similarly, they maintained for another field in the same area, 2,225 acres of land was being used but the rent was being demanded for 7,000 acres of land. **“The matter however can be resolved amicably through negotiations,” ** the sources added.

Responding to a question, the sources said since 1975 the OGDCL had made a total payment of Rs 350 million to the Bugti tribe. Besides, they said, 12.5 per cent of the total royalty was also being paid regularly by the federal government to the provincial government in Balochistan. Reports from Quetta, meanwhile, said power supply to Dera Bugti was restored on Tuesday.

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This is getting ridiculous. This situation is nothing but intra-tribal warfare thats hurting Baluchistan and the rest of Pakistan. We should hold the Sardar responsible for any damages because they arew primarily responsible for the actions of their tribes. I really do hope PM Jamali gets involved in this situation as he will hopefully be seen as a reliable intermediatary.

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The Pakistan army rulers must look for the root cause of this problem and solve it rather then doing something stupid like in the past.

The concerns of the Baloch must be addressed rather then strong arm tactics that have never worked. Jamali is in a position now, and hopefully he will not give in to the hawkish elements of the establishment who would like nothing better but to finish of the Balochs as a power.

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Good initiatives from the Govt.

Body formed to tackle gas crisis permanently

The committee, comprising interior secretary Tasneem Noorani and secretary petroleum M. Abdullah Yousaf, has been directed to visit the troubled areas immediately and finalize a strategy to establish authority of the government there.

Power supply restored to Dera Bugti

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More efforts from the Govt. to prevent attacks from the tribes.

500 Rangers to patrol gas pipeline

MULTAN: Some 500 rangers, headed by a colonel, have taken up their patrol duty along the Sui gas pipeline, Rajanpur and Rojhan police sources told APP by telephone on Wednesday.

Besides, border military police (BMP) and Punjab police personnel are also assisting the rangers in this task of protecting the national assets. The sources claimed that DIG DG Khan, DCO Rajanpur and SSP Rajanpur went to Dera Bugti to hold parleys with the Bugti chieftain Nawab Akbar Bugti for the release of three policemen allegedly kidnapped by the tribesmen of the Bugti clan.

**The sources further claimed that some senior officers from Islamabad also visited Rajanpur and discussed the matter with the local administration on Wednesday. But details of the talks were not known.

Some 20 Bugti tribesmen kidnapped DSP Rojhan, Rana Tahir Mansoor, SHO Rojhan Inspector Muhammad Farooq, driver Muhammad Tufail and gunman of DSP Nazar Hussain Monday night.**

The perpetrators also hijacked the official jeep with registration No RP-7700 and took away an official kalashnikov. The kidnappers were armed with rocket launchers, hand-grenades and kalashnikovs, the police officials said. Later, the kidnappers released the DSP in the midst of the mountains who walked for 11 hours to reach Dauli, the BMP check-post adjacent to Mazari Goth, some 300 km from here.

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Rangers fled the area as Bugti attacked Mazari again.

Rangers flee as Bugtis attack

MULTAN, Jan 30: **Bugti tribesmen resumed heavy artillery shelling onto Mazari Goth in Punjab at 5pm on Thursday. Reports reaching here said that some of the shrapnel fired from Dera Bugti in Balochistan landed near the encampment of the rangers on the provincial border at Dauli checkpoint of the border military police. **

The shelling caught the rangers off guard and they ran for shelter. The government had deployed some 350 personnel of the para-military force at Mazari Goth, some 340km from here, to guard the 21-kilometre gas pipeline.

The rangers did not respond to the shelling which continued unabated when sources in the area were contacted at 7pm. Official sources in Dera Bugti confirmed that the Bugtis were again using dangerous weaponry.

**The Mazaris, surrounded by the rangers, were unable to return the fire. The elders in Mazari tribe said there was a growing sense of insecurity on two accounts - first, there was no comparison between the conventional armoury of the Mazaris and the sophisticated weaponry possessed by the Bugtis; second, the Mazaris were afraid that the government might make them scapegoat for face-saving against the humiliation the Bugtis had inflicted on it vis-a-vis its writ of law.

They spoke of three dimensions of the crisis: One was the row between Nawab Akbar Bugti and the government over the rental issues of Sui gas fields; the second were clashes between the Mundrani sub-clan of the Bugti tribe and the Eshani sub-clan of the Mazari tribe and the third were the outlaws who robbed and kidnapped people on the Indus highway and took refuge in the inter-provincial tribal belt. **

Meanwhile, the Rajanpur police have failed to recover three policemen allegedly kidnapped by the Bugti tribesmen on Sunday. They are: Inspector Farooq Leghari, constable Nazar Hussain and driver Mohammad Tufail.

Police officials claimed on Thursday that negotiations were under way to secure the release of the officials through the district administration of Dera Bugti. However, the acting district coordination officer of Dera Bugti, Khaleeq Kiyani, denied that the Punjab police had approached the Dera administration for the release of the policemen.

Shamim Shamsi adds from Sukkur: Sources said that the attack by the Bugtis, fourth during the last fifteen days, had damaged three houses at the Mazari village.

**Sources claimed that the Mazari tribesmen returned the fire with mortar guns. The firing continued for about one hour before the Bugtis fled.

Report said that because of the deployment of some 250 rangers on the border belt of Sindh and Balochistan the Tangwani, Risaldar, and Bahoo Khoso police stations were sealed. **

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Instead of sending useless Rangers, the government should listen to the tribes and find the root cause of the problem. Force wil never solve this problem. Only, giving the Balochs their rights will fix the problem.

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Let me clear this up:

Rangers have been deployed to protect Gas Pipelines, not tribes.

Let the animals wiped themselves out.

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*Originally posted by Pakistani Tiger: *
Let me clear this up:

Rangers have been deployed to protect Gas Pipelines, not tribes.

Let the animals wiped themselves out.
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You are calling your countrymen animals now? You are a hypocrite then, for you complain about what India does to Kashmiris, Israel does to Palestinians, while you call your poor countrymen who have to live in villages under the gun of sardars and army as animals.

The only real animals here are the Rangers. Just ask anyone who lives in a poor mohajir area in Karachi during the 80's and 90's.

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My my Imdad Mian, cool down. :hehe: Makin’ insane comments does keep your blood pressure normal. :hehe:

Again, how come Karachi popped up here? Again, when were you in Karachi last time?

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As I thought, Jamali orders authorities for more Security. :slight_smile:

Jamali orders more security for gas pipeline

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali on Friday directed increased security for gas pipeline.

Talking to Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat and Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Naurez Shakoor here, the prime minister said attacks on national installations caused huge losses to the exchequer. Both the ministers apprised the prime minister about the losses incurred in the wake of attacks and the steps taken by the government to safeguard the gas pipeline in future. The interior minister briefed the prime minister about the security measures being taken by the government.

Meanwhile, thirty-five men from the Mazari tribe were arrested Friday on charge of damaging the gas pipeline near Mazari Goth while installation of a new monitoring system to ensure the steady stream of gas supply to the country continued.

Bashir Mazari reportedly led the group that was taken to an undisclosed location and later released. Meanwhile, security forces have started erecting check posts in Mazari Kot, Doli and Sui to protect the gas pipeline. Fifty vehicles will be provided to security forces to monitor the 50km pipeline.

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PT, the people tryiing to kill civilians with rockets are animals. The whole Mazari-Bugti tribe? No…the Rangers should separate the two groups and serve as a peacekeeping force. There job is to protect Pakistani’s not just gas pipelines.

Editorial: Let’s be transparent over Sui gas
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_1-2-2003_pg3_1
As the 500 rangers sent to guard the Sui gas pipeline in Balochistan fled helter-skelter under tribal rocket fire, General Pervez Musharraf was asking the government for a report on the centre’s payment of royalties and rentals in the sector of natural resources. It has taken a national crisis, involving billions of rupees of losses in the industrial sector, for the centre to admit indirectly that the question of royalties had not been resolved over the past half century. That the president should seek to inform himself about the nature of the problem makes it clear that Pakistan has refrained from tackling its most fundamental issue in the centre-province relations. The attack on the gas pipeline caused stoppage across Pakistan twice, and the promises made by the administration that the crisis would be resolved immediately were followed each time with more breaches. General Musharraf, keen on getting at least two international pipelines to come to Pakistan, must have seen the irony embodied in the tribal attacks on the Sui pipeline.

The discussions that followed the pipeline breach shockingly revealed the chasm that existed in the points of view of the provinces and the centre. While the public was fed the line that the breach was purely the result of a Bugti-Mazari tribal feud, representatives of Sindh and Balochistan clearly stated that it was an issue of provincial rights. The Baloch point of view had always been expressed forcefully in the Senate, but the governments had chosen to ignore it. The first objection was that natural gas had been discovered in Balochistan in the 1950s but was supplied to the province 30 years later in the 1980s after much protest. This was followed by an elaborate argument over the royalty paid to the province and the rentals paid to the tribes over whose territory the Sui Northern pipeline passed. The province was dissatisfied by the way the state-owned gas companies had handled the two issues. The accusation was that the government manipulated the companies and forswore its obligations particularly when the country was under military administration. One can safely say that Sui gas issue has contributed significantly to the trend of alienation and even separatism in Balochistan.

General Musharraf will now be given a presentation by the ministry of petroleum and natural resources on the way it has handled the payment of royalties and rentals over the past 30 years and what results these payments had yielded. Needless to say, the purpose of this presentation is to understand why the current standoff between the government and the tribes has taken place. More to the point would also be an inquiry into the appointments made to the state-owned companies that were parties to the deals formally made by the ministry with the provinces and the tribes. General Musharraf would be justified in asking why the deals became unstuck periodically and whether there was any collusion between Islamabad and the state-owned companies over the way the tribes were treated as partners. In other words, was the question of rentals “politicised” by government to “sort out” the tribal chiefs? A reference has also been made to “bribes” in the press. If bribes were resorted to over deals made on royalties and rentals, then all was not well with the motive behind these negotiations.

Press reports tell us now that the last cheques made out to the Bugtis for rentals were rejected by them because they were delayed. Why were the cheques delayed? Responsible personalities have come on TV to tell us that there is disagreement over the annual revenue made by the state-owned gas company from the Balochistan wells. They have also objected to the percentage decided for royalties payable to Balochistan. Above all, there is bad odour about the lack of transparency in the disposal of what is Pakistan’s most important economic resource. In 1999, a committee put together by General Musharraf was to facilitate the operations of 20 foreign and local companies seeking to prospect for oil and gas in Balochistan. It failed to do its job because it could not negotiate successfully with the tribes. There is an urgent need to go into these past failures as more exploration in the areas under the Mazari-Bugti control becomes due. If the province is allowed to fend for itself under a tribal system, then there should be no qualms over dealing with the tribes by over-riding the orthodox notions of national sovereignty.

The issue of royalties and rentals inheres in the principle of centre-province relations under the Constitution. The constitutional device to decide issues under this principle is the National Finance Commission (NFC). The sad truth about the NFC is that it breaks down under democracy but comes to life under military rule. Its dysfunction signals a crisis of confidence between the centre and the provinces. The NFC award finalised under General Musharraf has been challenged in the Sindh assembly jointly by the ruling alliance and the opposition, both wanting a reduction in the federal share of the divisible pool. Significantly, the province wants a larger share in the income it contributes to the federal receipts. The NFC is where the question of royalties and rentals too should be finally resolved. But that will happen only when the provinces are allowed to rightfully claim what is theirs and the NFC is not allowed to wither on the bough under democracy. *