HYDERABAD: Awam Pakistan Party’s secretary general, Miftah Ismail, has said that Pakistan has become dysfunctional in terms of governance and stressed the need for deciding contentious canals issue with consensus among all stakeholders in Council of Common Interests (CCI).
Miftah, who remained finance minister in Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz government, told journalists at local press club on Saturday that his party believed Cholistan Canal issue was to be decided by CCI but it was not being taken up at this forum.
He said that his party realised that more food resources, area and water were needed for increasing population. Pakistan had about 145MAF water resources and Sindh was to get 48MAF under the water accord but it received 43MAF whereas in addition Sindh also demanded 10MAF water supplies for release below Kotri, he said.
He said that it was later decided in light of studies in 2005 that 8.6MAF water should be released below Kotri to check sea intrusion but it was left undecided who would share this 8.6MAF – whether provinces would share it or Sindh would provide these flows out of its share. If, he said, Sindh released this quantum then it would be left with only 35MAF, he said.
He said that currently wheat growers were not getting adequate price for their produce. The grain was being purchased by hoarders and investors who usually belonged to the government. Resultantly, the grain would be bought cheaper rate and sold at higher rates in September and then in December wheat would have to be imported, he said.
He said that hardly 28-29m tonnes of wheat would be produced this year which was 31 metric tonnes last year. If agrarian economy plunged then Pakistan’s economy would nosedive, he said.
He said that Cholistan Canal was not just Sindh-Punjab conflict but it would also affect southern Punjab’s farmers. All stakeholders should sit in CCI and discuss the water issue, he said. “Unless there is consensus among stakeholders the canals project should not be built as weakening the federation is tantamount to a sin,” he said.
Miftah criticised Shehbaz Sharif government for not discussing NFC issue, empowering local government, bringing pension reforms and not going for privatization. He did not cut to ministries size which should have been done as part of reforms and did not tax agriculture, he said.
He said that his party believed 20pc families should be given Rs15,000 per month for which allocating Rs1800bn to Rs2000bn would not be an issue in present finances.
He said that Pakistan’s electricity rate for industrial and household consumers was higher than 11 countries. He could not praise Shehbaz Sharif when oil prices dropped the world over and Rs18 levy was imposed on petrol which was an additional tax of Rs33bn this month and Rs17bn last month which was indeed mini budget, he said.
HPC president Khalid Khokhar, secretary Hameedur Rehman, local APP leader Anwar Soomro and others were also present at the news conference.
Published in Dawn, April 20th, 2025
