17 February 2004	Tuesday	25 Zilhaj 1424

KARACHI, Feb 16: All the four provinces are creating new inter-provincial coordination departments to be headed by full ministers, with the objective of addressing all those inter-provincial issues which are creating discord and disharmony among them and bitterness in national politics.

These issues are: resources' allocation by the National Finance Commission, water distribution, Kalabagh Dam, Thal Canal and matters pertaining to cross-border movement of criminals.

President General Pervez Musharraf put provincial harmony and national consensus at the top of his agenda when he took over charge in October 1999. The setting up of inter-provincial coordination departments is being considered a step in that direction.

Sindh has already taken a lead and appointed Sardar Nadir Akmal Khan Leghari minister in charge of provincial coordination. He told Dawn on Monday by telephone that the federal provincial coordination minister, Aftab Sherpao, had informed him that the three other provinces - the NWFP, Balochistan and Punjab - would also be creating provincial coordination departments very soon and issuing necessary notifications.

The minister hoped that once full-fledged departments were created and ministers appointed in the three provinces, an environment would be created to take up burning and explosive issues head-on.

"You gain nothing by sweeping the issues under the rug," he said and maintained that a head-on approach to address the issues should lead to solutions which were acceptable to all.

Sardar Leghari, a close relation to former president Sardar Farooq Khan Leghari from Dera Ghazi Khan in Punjab, is an elected member of the Sindh Assembly from a border district of Sindh.

He was appointed minister last August. But it took months for the provincial government to notify the creation of the provincial coordination department, and he now operates it with the smallest secretariat in the province.

"It is not a money-minting department," the minister said while explaining why officers did not like posting in his department. But the small size of the secretariat, he said, had not stopped him from performing his job.

Sardar Leghari said he was very much involved in the deliberations of the National Finance Commission as a back-up support for the Sindh's two-member team of negotiators, comprising Syed Sardar Ahmad, the senior minister in charge of finance, and Abdul Karim Lodhi, the private statutory member. The two members are retired bureaucrats and Sardar Leghari is the only politician who is lobbying quietly for a consensus award.

The minister enjoys close family relationship with Dr Zubair, a private member on the NFC from the NWFP, and also with the finance ministers of Punjab and Balochistan.

He is, however, not ready to accept that Punjab's softening stance on the distribution criterion for the resources can be attributed to his lobbying. All along since 1974 when the first NFC was set up, population remained the only basis of resources' distribution.

In the current NFC deliberations, there are some indications that Punjab will agree to more than one basis for the distribution of resources. There are reasons to believe that distribution of resources in the next NFC award will be qualitatively and substantially different, both vertically and horizontally.

"Soon a study is being commissioned to find out downstream minimum water flow requirement of Kotri into Indus Delta to maintain a balanced eco system," the Sindh minister said, adding that Punjab had wanted to carry out three studies but had now indicated agreement on carrying out a study on the Kotri downstream.

Another issue among the provinces has been cross-border movements of criminals. The police cannot pursue the criminal until bureaucratic requirements for approaching him through the provincial home secretary are met. The Sindh provincial coordination department is working out a hotline among the superintendents of police of all the provinces.

Sardar Leghari plans to organize a meeting with the academics and intellectuals of the province late this month or early next month to elicit views on burning issues and work out a strategy as to how to approach the other provinces.