September 6, 2002	Friday	Jamadi-us-Saani27,1423

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ISLAMABAD, Sept 5: The government is expected to make drastic changes in the composition of Indus River System Authority (Irsa) shortly to form an independent body of irrigation experts to cleanse it of its highly politicised outlook.

Sources told Dawn that the ministry of water and power has proposed to President Pervez Musharraf, who is also the minister in charge of the ministry, to make necessary amendments to the Indus River System Authority Act. The act was enforced under the 1991 water accord to make water allocations to the provinces as per their agreed share.

The water and power ministry has suggested that the rotation policy of chairman Irsa that makes it compulsory for every provincial member to become chairman for two years should be discontinued. Instead, a permanent chairman should be appointed by the federal government who could act independently without any provincial inclination and report to the federal government.

Furthermore, the members should be appointed on the recommendations of the provincial governments as before but must not be called provincial members and represent the federal government instead as independent experts, the summary proposed.

The post of the federal member in the Irsa would stand abolished. This post was given to Sindh on a temporary basis two years back by the chief executive on continuous complaints by the Sindh government that most of the time the federal member supported the Punjab province.

When contacted, the official spokesman and joint secretary, water and power, Dr Abdul Hameed, refused to comment, saying he was not aware of any summary having been sent to the president. He said the official spokesman had limited authority and knowledge to comment on such issues.

The sources said the proposal has come in the wake of continued failure of the Irsa to address inter-provincial disputes over water distribution during the last five years of water shortage.