ISLAMABAD, Dec 1: The positions of members of the Indus River System Authority (Irsa) have become a contentious issue between the federal and provincial governments and may land in court for adjudication over the next couple of days.

The ministry of water and power has asked the four provinces and Wapda to recommend one candidate each so that one of them could be nominated and sent to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for appointment as member (federal) of Irsa — a five-member constitutional forum for regulation and sharing of water among the provinces.

The post of member (federal) has been lying vacant since October 2010 because of an ongoing tussle among the provinces. Chairman of the Federal Flood Commission/chief engineering adviser Asjad Imtiaz Elahi has been looking after the assignment on a temporary basis, in addition to his post as Irsa chairman.

The fresh dispute emerged after Mr Elahi completed his third year as ad hoc federal member and consequently as Irsa chairman on Oct 17.

His replacement in rotation — member for Balochistan — faced a different legal glitch. Mumtaz Khan was appointed by the interim government of Mir Hazar Khan Khoso and the Supreme Court said in a verdict that such key postings should only be endorsed or decided by the elected government.

Irsa sought an advice from the water and power ministry over the status of Mumtaz Khan which did not come and he continued as member for Balochistan, enjoying salary, perks and privileges. As the rotational right of Balochistan as Irsa chairman became due on Oct 17, Mumtaz Khan took over and notified himself as chairman.

In the meantime, the new provincial government disowned Mumtaz Khan and in his place recommended Mohammad Naseem Bazai for appointment as Balochistan member and consequently Irsa chairman which was immediately notified by the centre.

On the other hand, Sindh sent a summary to the federal government nominating Engineer Ghulam Abbas Leghari as federal member. The summary argued that under an executive order issued by former president Gen Pervez Musharraf in 2000 which still legally held the ground, it was a prerogative of the provincial government to nominate a Sindh-domiciled professional as federal member.

An official said that while the Sindh government was agitating the issue politically, some nationalist parties of the province were preparing a case to take the matter to the court.

Interestingly, the ministry of water and power forwarded the name of Mr Leghari to the prime minister for appointment as Sindh member, forgetting that another legal appointee Mazhar Ali Shah was already representing the province. When pointed out by the Prime Minister’s Secretariat, the ministry immediately withdrew the summary and asked the provinces and Wapda to send their nominations for the federal member.

The tenure of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa member also expired but the provincial government decided to continue with its former member Abdul Raqeeb Khan for another term.

The same is the case with Punjab member Rao Irshad Ali Khan. The post of federal member has been a central point of differences between the Punjab and Sindh governments in matters relating to water rights. It was against this background that the federal government wanted Wapda led by Raghib Abbas Shah of Sindh to nominate a person from Punjab to avoid inter-provincial controversy.

In order to allay concerns of Sindh’s people over the construction of new dams on the Indus, Gen Musharraf as chief executive of the country had amended the Irsa Act of 1992 through an executive order to shift the headquarters of Irsa from Lahore to Islamabad and to have a Sindh-domiciled member as its federal member. As a result, Sindh enjoyed two members in the authority for almost a decade.

Punjab had been a critic of the decision. Chief Minister Shahbaz Shrif had suggested to the centre to nominate the federal member from either Azad Kashmir or Gilgit-Baltistan to ensure impartial decision-making by the regulator in the presence of equal representation from the four provinces. The Punjab assembly passed a resolution in support of Mr Sharif’s demand.

The idea was opposed by Sindh and its assembly adopted a resolution in January 2011 asking the centre to continue to appoint the federal member from Sindh.

The Irsa law requires that the post of chairman should be held by members from Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, Sindh and the federal government, in that order, for a period of one year. Under the law, the Flood Commission chairman will serve as federal member in the event of the post falling vacant for any reason.