PESHAWAR, May 17: The Awami National Party (ANP) has questioned the NWFP government’s claim that the federal government under Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali had made a commitment to the province to enhance its annual share by Rs2 billion under the net hydel profit by the 2004-05 financial year.

ANP’s vice-president Haji Mohammed Adeel said in a press statement on Tuesday that no such commitment had been made with the provincial government.

“Had it been the case, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, who was finance minister in the Jamali-led federal government, would have known that, but as no such commitment was made, he (Mr Aziz) is not accepting the stand adopted by the provincial government,” said the ANP leader.

The NWFP government has taken stand that Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) should pay it Rs8 billion on account of net hydel profit during the 2004-05 financial year instead of the capped share of Rs6 billion, because the previous federal government had made a promise in this regard at the time of presenting the current year’s budget in June last year.

He said that the provincial government should concentrate more on recovering its over Rs346 billion arrears accumulated against Wapda on account of net hydel profit since 1973 when constitutional cover was given to payment of net hydel profits to provinces as a result of a stiff stand adopted by ANP leader Abdul Wali Khan.