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| 06 August 2004 | Friday | 19 Jamadi-us-Saani 1425 |
Irsa urges premier to revive CCI
ISLAMABAD, Aug 5: The Indus River System Authority (Irsa) has approached the prime minister for the reconstitution of the Council of Common Interest (CCI) under article 153 of the Constitution to resolve issues concerning water distribution, Dawn has learnt.
"Irsa has written to the prime minister secretariat to let it be guided by an autonomous forum on various issues of conflicting interpretations," a senior Irsa official confirmed. However, he said, Irsa "has not mentioned the name of CCI" although he agreed that autonomous forum for such issues "is none other than CCI."
The official said the letter was written to the prime minister secretariat following the July 20 meeting of the parliamentary committee that annulled the 1994 ministerial decision and held that distribution of water shortages would take place under para-2 of the water accord.
He said that the Chief Executive office in 2002 had directed Irsa to forget about the 1994 ministerial decision and share the water shortages among provinces on annual average-use basis. In real sense, there is no difference between the 1994 ministerial decision and the annual average-use based water distribution, he said.
"Now we have informed the government that there are divergent views of various stake-holders on the implementation of the 1991 accord," he said. Following the chief executive's directive some stake-holders believe the distribution is not taking place in accordance with the para-2 of the accord while others think that was not the case.
While annulling the 1994 decision, he said, the Chief Executive office had also asked Irsa that no new decision be taken without informing the CE office about distribution of water shares among the provinces.
He said the Sindh government believed that average annual-use basis in fact meant depending on the 1977-82 figures. So the confusion over the situation "continues to persist even today."
He said the parliamentary committee was not authorized to direct Irsa what to do on provincial disputes on water sharing. The Ministry of Water and Power, he said, could convey the government's decision to Irsa but that too was not willing to issue any letter to the authority on the subject because it viewed that it was not authorized to do so.
He said under the constitution only the council of common interest could take or change decisions about provincial disputes on water sharing. He said that a notification for the reconstitution of the CCI could be issued only by the president but "it is the prime minister secretariat that is required to initiate the process."
Under article 153 of the constitution, the CCI should comprise provincial chief ministers and an equal number of members from the federal government to be nominated by the prime minister from time to time.
The prime minister, if he is a member of the council, shall be the chairman of the council but if at any time he is not a member, the president may nominate a federal minister, who is a member of the council, to be its chairman.
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