ISLAMABAD: As the report on water distribution, which had to be released in one month, has been pending with the Attorney General Office for the last one year, the National Assembly Standing Committee on Water Resources on Monday requested Prime Minister Imran Khan and the Council of Common Interests (CCI) to intervene in the matter and get the report released.

A meeting of the committee, held at the Ministry of Water Resources, was presided over by Pakistan Peoples Party lawmaker Nawab Muhammad Yousuf Talpur and attended by MNAs Ali Nawaz Awan, Chaudhry Shoukat Ali Bhatti, Muhammad Farooq Azam Malik, Naureen Farooq Ibrahim, Nuzhat Pathan, Chaudhry Muhammad Hamid Hameed (through video link), Riaz-ul-Haq, Ehsan-ur-Rehman Mazari and Afreen Khan. Parliamentary Secretary for Water Resources Saleh Muhammad also attended the meeting.

During the meeting, Mr Talpur complained that Sindh was getting less than its share of water and the Indus River System Authority (Irsa) should implement the 1991 agreement on sharing of water.

“It is unfortunate that Irsa has been claiming that historically there are different methods of water distribution, but the fact is that the 1991 accord clearly states that the provinces will face the equal loss in case of water scarcity, but Sindh has been getting fewer share of water,” he said.

Sindh complains of getting less than its share of water

Talking to Dawn after the meeting, Mr Talpur said that in the 1991 accord it was mentioned in Para II that in case of shortage of water all provinces would face the loss of water equally in accordance with their share.

“However, Irsa quotes Para 14b in which it is stated that historically there are different methods of water distribution. I insisted that the Para II should be implemented. Almost a year ago, the CCI and the PM had referred the matter to Attorney General’s Office with a suggestion to file a report regarding water distribution in one month. However, the Attorney General’s Office said that it was not a legal opinion so expert opinion was also required. Now we have been waiting for the report for the last one year and finally we have now requested the PM and the CCI in writing to intervene to get the matter resolved,” he said.

Replying to a question, he said Irsa was of the view that there was a shortage of water because new dams could not be constructed.

“There is no controversy over Bhasha Dam, but unfortunately its construction has also been delayed. There are canals in Punjab to cope with flood water, but now they have been opened without the province facing floods. As the chairman of Irsa is also a member representing Punjab, he defends the case of Punjab,” Mr Talpur said.

During the meeting, the committee suggested that the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) should pay Rs1,916 million deducted from the account of Naulong Dam forthwith and the Sindh government should pay outstanding dues of water charges of Hub Dam to the Balochistan government.

The standing committee was informed that the federal government had approved the Naulong Dam project in 2009 and all formalities had been fulfilled, but when funds had been released for the project, the FBR deducted Rs1,916m from the account of Naulong Dam without any legitimate ground and adjusted the amount against receivables from Wapda. Consequently, work on the Naulong Dam project could not be started and an important national project suffered a delay.

The FBR representative was of the view that Naulong Dam was a project of Wapda and receivables from Wapda could be deducted from hundreds of accounts of Wapda. Hence, the FBR deducted and received the amount from the account of Naulong Dam.

The committee expressed displeasure over the FBR’s move and declared that it should not deduct funds from the public sector development projects.

The committee was informed that the Lahore High Court had already directed the FBR to return this amount, but the latter had taken a new position and now it said that as sales tax had been imposed, it would adjust the amount deducted from the account of Naulong Dam against the sales tax imposed on Wapda. The committee directed the FBR to immediately return these funds to the Naulong Dam project and directed Wapda to immediately pay its other dues to the FBR.

Published in Dawn, July 6th, 2021