24 January 2004	Saturday	01 Zilhaj 1424

ISLAMABAD, Jan 23: The government is likely to reconsider its strategy on water issues owing to a growing feeling in Sindh that the province has been sidelined on all major counts in the field, Dawn has learnt.

The government is considering to activate the Council of Common Interests under Article 153 of the Constitution because of objections over the constitution of two committees on water resources by President Gen Pervez Musharraf.

Sources said many parliamentarians and senior officials from Sindh had complained in informal meetings to the government that the province was not properly represented at the policymaking stage.

The government has been told that the effort for creating consensus on water issues would fail if those concerns were not addressed at this stage. One of the major grievances cited in this regard is that the technical committee on water issues led by A.N.G. Abbasi has not done any work since it was constituted by the president in August, 2003.

Former Water and Power Development Authority chairman Zulfiqar Ali Khan and Mr Abbasi had jointly drafted the terms of reference of the committee in August. However, its composition and the terms of reference were notified in November.

Mr Abbasi was reportedly surprised to see that most of the points agreed by the former Wapda chairman had not been included in the notified terms of reference. He protested and met the president and the water and power minister in the first week of December, 2003, to get those points included in the terms of reference.

He was promised that his objections would be addressed and revised terms of reference issued within a week, but is has not been done. The parliamentary committee led by Senator Nisar A. Memon has held three meetings but it has not yet consulted opposition parties, particularly those belonging to Sindh, which, according to sources, has led to grievances in the province. The officials and parliamentarians are also unhappy over some statements of Mr Memon.

The committee's other member from Sindh, Sardar Ali Nawaz Maher, did not attend any meeting of the committee and has announced that he is not a part of it.

The constitution of the committee, which also has members from the Senate, through a notification by the National Assembly speaker, has been challenged by Senator Raza Rabbani of the People's Party Parliamentarians. He contends that the constitution has provided the forum of the CCI for the purpose and the committee is illegal as the National Assembly speaker could not issue a notification about the members of the upper house.

The positions of the Sindh member in Indus River System Authority and the federal government's representative from Sindh have been vacant for four months. Neither new appointments have been made nor the contracts of the former members have been extended. The two have been asked to continue working on a daily basis. Because of uncertainty, they seldom attend Irsa.

Another matter over which concern has been expressed is that the distribution of water in case of shortage was not being done in accordance with the 1991 water accord. A new dimension was included in the accord within three years of its signing, which was to Sindh's disadvantage, it was alleged.

Sources said the matter was referred to the law division which ruled Sindh's favour but the distribution of water continued against that ruling on the directives of the president.