June 22, 2008	Sunday	Jamadi-us-Sani 17, 1429

PESHAWAR, June 21: Members of the provincial assembly, through a set of unanimously-adopted resolutions on Saturday, called upon the federal government to abolish the concurrent list and facilitate payment of royalty on Frontier’s share of Indus water being used by Punjab.

They also called for lifting inter-provincial ban on transportation of wheat and flour and fixing uniformed prices for both the commodities for the whole country.

Three resolutions were presented, in a surprising way, in the house on Saturday, when different lawmakers were commenting on the budget presented on June 16 in the Frontier assembly.

Provincial minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain read out the three resolutions in a single breathe in the house. While reading out the resolution on the concurrent list, he said it had been proposed in the 1973 Constitution that 47 subjects mentioned in the list would be for a period of 10 years, but successive governments had extended it beyond its fixed term. He said it had been their stand to get it abolished because it was against the spirit of provincial autonomy. He urged the Pakistan People’s Party leadership to incorporate their demand into the proposed constitutional package.

Presenting the resolution on royalty on irrigation water being used by other provinces, he said Punjab had been utilising Frontier’s share of the River Sindh water since 1991 free of cost. The minister demanded that the Punjab government should pay royalty on irrigation water to his province.

Through the third resolution, the minister called upon the Punjab government to withdraw ban on (inter-provincial) transportation of wheat and flour. He said that like gas, oil and electricity tariffs, the government should fix uniformed rates for both the items for the entire country.

Abdul Akbar Khan of PPP, Mian Iftikhar Hussain of Awami National Party, Pir Sabir Shah of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Sikandar Hayat Sherpao of PPP-S, Qalandar Lodhi of PML-Q and Hafiz Akhat Ali of Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal signed and endorsed the resolutions. Earlier, Abdul Akbar proposed to Mian Iftikhar to present resolutions one-by-one, but the mover tabled them in one go.