QUETTA, June 10: Federal Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination Saleem Saifullah Khan on Saturday underlined the significance of the Council of Common Interest and announced that the CCI would be activated to resolve the issues being faced by provinces.

Addressing a meeting at the Chief Minister’s Secretariat, he said the CCI, headed by the prime minister with all chief ministers as its members, was the right forum to discuss and resolve various matters between the centre and the provinces.

The minister supported Balochistan’s viewpoint on its financial crisis and added that the centre should pay heed to its stance on GDS (Gas Development Surcharge) and gas royalty issues. He assured the meeting that all issues between Balochistan and Islamabad would be resolved soon.

Chief Minister Jam Mir Mohammad Yousuf, provincial ministers Syed Ehsan Shah, Syed Sher Jan Baloch and Mir Asim Kurd and senior officials attended the meeting.

Mr Saifullah agreed that with its present financial problems Balochistan would face difficulties in preparing the budget and said the federal government should help it remove hurdles in budget making.

“Balochistan’s stand on GDS and gas royalty is very strong and significant,” he said, adding that he would make all efforts in increasing financial resources of the province.

Referring to Hub Dam water dues payable by Sindh to Balochistan, the federal minister said he would take up the issue with concerned authorities. “Provincial harmony will be promoted to create congenial atmosphere among the provinces.”

He announced that the Inter-Provincial Coordination Committee would meet next month to discuss all problems of the provinces.

He said President Pervez Musharraf attached priority to the development of Balochistan and that’s why mega projects worth Rs140 billion had been initiated in the province.

He sought cooperation of the chief minister to strengthen the inter-provincial coordination ministry and stressed that advertisements regarding vacancies in various projects should be published in national newspapers to indicate that jobs were being awarded on merit.

Later, secretaries to various departments gave briefings to the federal minister.

He was informed that the Mirani dam would be completed by September and on completion it would irrigate 33,000 acres of land. Kachhi Canal’s first phase is expected to be completed by 2008 and work on Subakzai dam is going on apace.