23 August 2004	Monday	06 Rajab 1425

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ISLAMABAD, Aug 22: The parliamentary committee on water resources (PCWR) is unlikely to submit its report to the president owing to some legal implications and would decide on Monday whether to present its interim report to the National Assembly Speaker.

A meeting of the PCWR would be held on Monday to finalize its interim report and decide when and to whom the report should be officially submitted. From legal standpoint, the committee is required to submit its report to the National Assembly Speaker who would forward it to the federal government.

The speaker had officially constituted the PCWR last year following a public announcement by the president to constitute two committees on water resources to develop consensus on the construction of big dams. The technical committee led by ANG Abbasi was constituted separately through a notification by the ministry of water and power.

Chairman of the PCWR senator Nisar A. Memon when contacted confirmed that a final meeting of the committee on Monday would decide as to whom, when and in what form the report should be submitted.

He said the committee had originally planned to submit its report to the president and the prime minister at a joint presentation but that was not the case now. "It has many legal connotations and I am really not in a position to say to whom, in what form and when to formally submit the report," said Mr Memon.

Informed sources told Dawn that President General Pervez Musharraf was not satisfied with the outcome of the deliberations of the committee because it focussed mainly on two things, gathering views of the stakeholders and status and data about various projects.

The president, said these sources, was very much aware of the views of the provinces and various political parties and had on his finger-tips the salient features of various irrigation projects gathered through monthly briefings from Wapda.

The sources said the committee could not do much on developing a consensus on the development of big water reservoirs that was the basic idea behind constituting the two committees on water resources.

Mr Memon said the committee had already finalized its interim report on the construction of dams and would review the whole situation, prepare documentation for the report and give details of what the committee had done so far. A decision would be taken based on views of the committee members, he said.

Replying to a question on a recent statement of National Highway Authority (NHA) chairman that the NHA had signed an MoU with Wapda relating to the renovation of Karakoram Highway for Bhasha dam construction, Mr Memon said that had there been a decision on construction of Bhasha dam the government would have informed the committee about that.

He said the PCWR was a legislative body and not an executive body and hence it could not take a decision about construction of any dam. When asked whether the committee was recommending to the government which of the two proposed dams - Kalabagh or Bhasha - should be taken up first for construction, Mr Memon said it could not be made public even if the committee had made such a recommendation.