KARACHI: Sindh Minister for Finance Syed Murad Ali Shah has asked the federal government to immediately halt further import of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and refer the matter to the Council of Common Interests.

Addressing a press conference at the CM House here on Sunday, he accused Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of violating the Constitution by not holding meetings of the CCI every 90 days and said a case should be instituted against him under Article 6.

Also read: Centre asked to increase Sindh’s gas allocation

He said that in order to seek immediate relief, the Sindh government might consider approaching the Supreme Court.

The minister accused the prime minister of pursuing policies which were against the interests of Sindh, including supply of natural gas to upper Punjab “from our gas fields and compelling my province to use imported LNG”.

He advised Mr Sharif to behave like a prime minister of the entire country and not of one province whose Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, he said, was being invited to every forum.

The minister said if needed Sindh would take control of gas and stop its supply to upper Punjab.

He asked NAB to conduct an inquiry into the non-transparent and highly objectionable regasified LNG deal.

Murad Ali Shah said agreements of six wind projects had been completed and these entered the construction phase in March this year, but the federal government slapped an illegal ban on wind/solar projects on April 20 without taking the Sindh government on board, although only economically viable wind corridor projects had been located in the province.

He said the decision was taken at a meeting of the Federal Cabinet Committee on Energy which was also attended by the Punjab chief minister. The committee was not constitutionally empowered to take a decision on such matters. He said if the decision was in national interest why it was not communicated to Sindh. Besides, despite a ban in place, the AEDB processed about 25 new wind/solar projects, he added.

The minister said the Sindh government had written two letters to the federal government, but there was no response.

He said the ministry of water and power and Nepra were also not allowing tariff for the projects, which had been issued a letter of interest after April 8.

He alleged that the ban was imposed to provide monopoly to a company called Zonergy which was installing solar power plants in Bahawalpur.

Referring to the first phase of the 100MW Quaid-i-Azam Solar Park, which was connected to the NTDC without any EPA and other requisite approvals, he said NAB should investigate supply of power generated by the plant to NTDC without an energy purchase agreement.

He said the federal government was in talks with Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Afghanistan to construct a transmission line, but surprisingly it was not ready to get wind power from its own territory in Sindh. The centre was also in talks with the enemy country, India, for power trade but not ready to arrange power evacuation from wind / solar projects in Sindh, he added.

He said that the Nandipur power plant was the costliest electricity project in the world with a cost of Rs83 billion.

He said re-gasification of LNG at Port Qasim was among the biggest scandals of the present regime. The beneficiary company has been offered highly controversial lucrative incentives i.e. the company would recover its entire investment of $150m in 18 months. The federal government had reportedly signed an agreement for 15 years and the company would earn a profit of over $1bn with just $150m investment, he said.

The minister said the Sindh government demanded complete disclosure of information about moving arrangements for LNG from SSGC to SNGPL. Sindh produces over 68 per cent of natural gas and it does not require LNG.

Senior Minister Nisar Ahmad Khuhro said the federal government would not be allowed to repeat the performance of 1998 when Keti Bunder project was shelved to push the country into darkness by creating obstacles in execution of wind power, solar energy projects and Thar coal power project.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Dr Sikander Mandhro also attended the press conference.

Published in Dawn, September 14th, 2015

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