QUETTA: The National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Inter-Provincial Coordination has urged the federal government to transfer the tax recovery system to Balochistan in accordance with the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, under which many departments were devolved to the provinces from the centre.

A meeting of the committee held here was presided over by its Chairman Abdul Qahar Wadan and attended by Maulana Ameer Zaman, Arshad Laghari, Tahira Bukhari, Mehreen Bhutto, Sohail Wazir, Sher Bahadur Khan Awan and Rana Afzal Khan.

Balochistan Chief Secretary Saifullah Chattah, Education Secretary Abdul Saboor Kakar, Health Secretary Dr Omar Baloch and other officials also attended the meeting.

It reviewed the progress on devolution of departments under the 18th Amendment.

The committee was informed that after the implementation of the amendment, 100 issues pertaining to Balochistan had been indicated and legislation had been done on 59 of them.

The chairman emphasised the need to transfer the tax recovery and revenue generation system from Islamabad to Balochistan so that the province could get revenue from industries set up in Hub, Lasbela and other areas.

Maulana Ameer Zaman said a feasibility report on provision of natural gas to five districts of Balochistan had been prepared three years back but the plan had not been implemented.

The chief secretary said a plan was being prepared to supply water to Quetta from Kachhi Canal and a 283-kilometre pipeline would be laid for the purpose. Under the project, the city would receive 57 million gallons of water on a daily basis, he said.

Published in Dawn, May 4th, 2016