KARACHI: The Sindh government has decided to ask the federal government to conduct early census, reorganise the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra), give due water and power share to the province, and transfer the Higher Education Commission (HEC) power and assets to the provincial commission.

The decision was taken at a meeting which was held on Tuesday to deliberate and finalise the Sindh government’s point of view on matters likely to be discussed at the CCI meeting in Islamabad on Wednesday.

Chaired by Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah, the meeting was attended among others by the finance minister, chief secretary, secretaries and senior officials of different departments.

Know more: Prime Minister calls for CCI meeting after 9 month gap

They decided that the Sindh government would ask the federal government to conduct a sixth population and housing census at the earliest.

The federal government would also be requested to reorganise Ogra by providing equal representation to the provinces and to ensure that K-Electric continued to get 650 megawatts from the national grid.

Water

Expressing reservations on the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government’s demand for bringing amendment to the Indus River System Authority (Irsa) Act, 1992 and seeking compensation for non-utilisation of its water and mechanism for use of water rights, the participants in the meeting said there was no provision of compensation in the water apportionment accord of 1991 nor was Irsa authorised to calculate / recover compensation thereof.

It was the KP government fault if the province did not utilise its due share of water due to lack of infrastructure, they added. Following the Sindh Higher Education Commission Act, 2013 approved by the provincial assembly, the government formed the HEC at the provincial level. The meeting was informed that the federal HEC was required to ensure standardisation of HEC institutions at the provincial level. About the energy sector, the Sindh government would support liquefied petroleum gas production and distribution policy 2014 and framing of the rules for the Pakistan Oil Refining Blending, Transportation, Storage and Marketing by the cabinet division, subject to de-regularisation of Ogra by giving equal representation to all the provinces. However, the Sindh government agreed to the proposal of Shale Gas interim framework / policy towards exploitation of shale gas to meet the energy needs of the country and seek more time to deliberate on power generation policy as a summary on this subject was received on Tuesday.

They also rejected the Balochistan government’s demand of compensation for short supplies of water in the Pat Feeder and Khirthar canals, citing that water distribution among the provinces as per 1991 water accord was Irsa responsibility.

It was argued that Sindh province had already been receiving less water than its due share as per the water apportionment accord 1991, therefore the provincial government could not agree on water allocation for Islamabad and Rawalpindi.

HEC

While deliberating on matters pertaining to higher education in the post-18th Amendment scenario, it was decided that the federal government would be asked to transfer HEC functions and resources to the provinces in accordance with the 18th Amendment.

Civil servants

The meeting was informed that in compliance with a decision of CCI’s previous meeting, the Sindh Assembly passed the Sindh Civil Servant (amendment) bill 2014 to absorb the federal employees transferred to the provincial government in the wake of the 18th amendment to the Constitution.

The services secretary said that arrangements had been finalised with terms and conditions of incoming servants being formulated. He added that Sindh would be the first province to regularise the employees permanently.

Energy sector

Besides, matters pertaining to the establishment of Pakistan Halal Authority, annual report of National Electric Power Regulatory Authority, Pakistan energy efficiency and energy conservation bill, 2014, public debt management and supervision policy, purchase of up to 20 per cent of the right shares of PPL, OGDCL and SSGCL also came under discussion.

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah said there were still many other matters which were supposed to be taken up at the CCI meeting. Among them, matters related to EOBI, recovery of Zakat fund and those pertaining to energy were more important, he believed.

After the 18th Amendment, the provinces have been empowered to even enter an agreement of trade and business with other countries. The chief minister asked the officers to utilise the powers and discuss if they faced any problems in this regard. He said he always supported constitutional rights of the provinces to make this country prosperous.

About restoration of the executive magistracy powers (EMP), the chief minister informed the meeting that the EMP restoration was the need of the hour to resolve administrative matters. Supporting the proposed amendment to the criminal procedure code of 1898 for the restoration of executive magistracy in the Supreme Court of Pakistan, the chief minister was of the opinion that the case should be followed in the apex court effectively.

Sindh Finance Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, chief secretary Mohammad Siddique Memon, principal secretary to chief minister Alamuddin Bullo, inter-provincial coordination secretary Niaz Abbasi, finance secretary Suhail Rajput, irrigation secretary Syed Zaheer Haider Shah, energy secretary Agha Wasif, home secretary Mukhtiyar Soomro, livestock, fisheries secretary Noor Mohammad Leghari, law secretary Meer Mohammad Shaikh, advocate general Fatah Malik, the Sindh HEC secretary and other officers attended the meeting.

Published in Dawn, March 18th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play