ISLAMABAD, Jan 28: The proposed creation of the province of ‘Bahawalpur Janoobi Punjab’ is likely to bring up major issues like distribution of water and financial shares among the provinces.

These issues are not likely to be settled before the next budget even if a political consensus on the new province is achieved.

A member of the parliamentary commission on new provinces told Dawn on Monday that a fresh National Finance Commission award would have to be worked out on an urgent basis if budgetary allocations for the new province were to be made for the next fiscal year, followed by re-opening of the 1991 water apportionment accord.

“The two issues need time and protracted negotiations among the provinces,” he said, adding that there could not be an interim arrangement because the issues are of a constitutional nature.

He said the parliamentary panel had discussed reviewing the water accord and decided to seek a briefing from the Indus River System Authority (Irsa) on technical issues.

About distribution of resources from the federal divisible pool, he said it would need to be legally examined if the NFC could be re-constituted before the expiry of the current award at the end of the 2014-15 fiscal year. “This needs greater and in-depth deliberations and has not yet been taken into account,” he said.

An Irsa member said a couple of major issues would need to be settled obviously by reopening the 1991 accord if the government finally decides to form a new province. The post of a member from the new province will need to be created to expand the composition of Irsa from five to six members.

He said Punjab had been demanding appointment of a member from AJK as a federal member to ensure his impartiality. Currently, each of the four provinces has one member in Irsa, while the post of the federal member has been a bone of contention.

He said the water share of the proposed province would need to be worked out because it gets water from the eight barrages and canals -- Chashma-Jhelum, Taunsa-Punjnad, Punjnad, Sulemanki, Islam, Muzaffargarh and Dera Ghazi Khan.

He said the water share of the new province would be based on the ‘existing uses’ and it would not share it equally with the Punjab province.

The annual flows going to the south would be worked out on the basis of command areas, he said. Besides, the new province’s share from the Indus and Jhelum zones would also need to be looked into.

Controversies may also arise on the operations of the Chashma-Jhelum and Taunsa-Punjnad canals between the new province and Sindh on the pattern of the dispute over water sharing between Sindh and Punjab.

Another issue is that of construction of dams in the context of the water share of the new province. Since most of the new reservoirs were to be built in the Indus zone, it would not be an easy job to determine the share of the new province and the operations of new dams, hence it would become mandatory to review the water accord, the Irsa member said.