24 August 2004	Tuesday	07 Rajab 1425

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ISLAMABAD, Aug 23: The government has started a process of confidence building among provinces to resolve water-related issues on a long-term basis and to start construction of big dams with consensus.

In this regard, the Water and Power Ministry has asked the prime minister to reconstitute the Council of Common Interest (CCI) so that a constitutional forum is available to provinces to discuss sensitive issues such as water and construction of new reservoirs.

Minister for Water and Power Aftab Ahmad Sherpao told a group of reporters here on Monday that a decision had also been taken to appoint a three-member international panel of experts from amongst 8-10 nominations from the World Bank to monitor and oversee the completion of three different studies relating to water release downstream Kotri at a total cost of Rs204 million.

He said the decision would go a long way in building confidence among provinces that was a fundamental requirement for the development of future reservoirs and to overcome water shortage with consensus.

Mr Sherpao said as minister for water and power, most of the inter-provincial issues fell under his jurisdiction and he had written to the Prime Minister to constitute the CCI under Article 153 of the Constitution so that a constitutional forum was in place to discuss and resolve such disputed matters.

He said Prime Minister Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain perhaps thought it appropriate to leave the decision of reconstituting the CCI to the next prime minister in view of the prevailing political transition.

He said he had not recommended names of ministers as federal government members of the CCI because it was prerogative of the prime minister to appoint the CCI members even from outside the cabinet.

The minister said the Sindh government had raised objections and reservations over the award of contracts to carry out two proposed studies on water escapages downstream Kotri at a recent chief minister's conference.

He said it was an achievement of the present government that three studies had been launched after 13 years of the decision of the Council of Common Interest but since it was a contentious issue, a three member panel of experts was being appointed under the 1991 water accord.

He said the World Bank had expressed willingness to propose 8-10 names for the panel of experts to oversee the work of consultants carrying out studies at three stages i.e. inception of the studies, interim reports and final studies. In case of any dispute on these studies, the decision of the panel would be taken as final.

He said that the two studies on escapages downstream Kotri and its environmental impact would be under way in 10-days time while the process for inviting bids for the third study which related to overall environmental impact on a countrywide basis had been expedited.

He said special secretary of water and power would hold meetings with World Bank experts to finalise term of reference (TOR) for the third study and the bids would be advertised within 15 days after clearance from the law and finance ministries. All three studies would be completed within six to eight months, he said.

Responding to another question on appointment of an arbitration commission on the issue of net hydel profit to the NWFP, the minister said the two members each from the NWFP and Wapda had been appointed on the recommendation of respective parties.

They include Prof Khursheed Ahmad and Mr Abdullah from the NWFP and Javed Akhtar and Salman Shah from Wapda. However, the two sides have not been able to agree to the name of chairman of the commission and have so far failed to finalise the document of understanding - a prerequisite to start arbitration proceedings.

The federal government had floated the name of a senior judge as chairman of the commission but this was rejected by the NWFP. The minister declined to disclose the name of the judge.

Answering a question, the minister said it was up to the parliamentary committee on water resources led by Senator Nisar Memon to take a decision on the construction of a dam and get it approved from the federal cabinet.

He said the committee would submit its report to the cabinet and also place it on the National Assembly record. He said the President had not named Kalabagh dam as the first priority as reported in the press and had mentioned the names of both the Kalabagh and Bhasha dams. He said there was no decision either on Bhasha dam as being implied from a recent statement of the National Highway Authority chairman.

He said the cost of renovation and redesigning of the Karakoram Highway in case of Bhasha dam had been included in the dam's estimated cost and various organisations might have been exchanging information on the subject but not in the context that a decision had been made.

Responding to another question, the minister said the government would not award a contract for 200-mw barge mounted power project to GSB technologies by setting aside rules and regulations because the company had not come forward yet with a solid proposal on the subject.

He said the UAE government was donating second hand gas-fired power projects of about 340-mw capacity to Pakistan. Of this, the 120-mw capacity would be installed in Karachi and rest of the 220-mw in Faisalabad or near Lahore.

He said the government would bear the cost of dismantling, transportation and installation of these plants and added that these projects had already been examined by Wapda's Member of Power and were not environmental hazard.

He said a special session of the Central Development Working Party (CDWP) was being convened on the request of power ministry to clear over Rs22 billion project for rehabilitation and upgradation of transmission and distribution network of Wapda and KESC.