The purpose of this paper is not to highlight the overall weaknesses of the current NFC Award but to concentrate primarily on highlighting the
pitfalls of using population as the sole or dominant criterion in resource distribution among provinces. It investigates whether it has distorted Pakistan’s population since 1951 onwards, and explores potential changes to make NFC an enabler for country’s development vision. In this vein, the study recommends an alternative criterion along with parameters and their respective weights for fair distribution of resources among provinces with a view to addressing the pitfalls of population being the sole or dominant criterion.