ISLAMABAD, Jan 17: The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the federal government and Wapda to submit replies in two months on Frontier government's claim of Rs110 billion hydel profits for power generation as determined by an arbitration tribunal.

A three-member bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan and Justice Sayed Saeed Ashhad has taken up the Frontier government's suit for the recovery of the net hydel profits on bulk electricity generation at hydroelectric stations in the province.

A five-member arbitral tribunal, whose chairman was former chief justice Ajmal Mian, had held that Wapda would pay Rs110 billion worth of net hydel profits in five annual equal instalments. The first instalment of Rs22 billion was due on January 9, 2007.

Respondents in the suit taken up by the apex court are the federal government through the cabinet secretariat as well as secretaries of water and power, finance and Wapda.

"We are not fighting for the rights of the province alone but for the entire country," provincial Law Minister Malik Zafar Azam told Dawn soon after the preliminary hearing.

Advocate Abdul Hafeez Pirzada and Barrister Hassan Aurengzeb pleaded that under Article 184(1) of the Constitution, only the Supreme Court has the exclusive jurisdiction to adjudicate the instant dispute.