KARACHI, July 21: The Sindh government wants to retain the Sindh Coal Authority as entirely a provincial agency with an expanded board of directors to give representation to the federal petroleum and natural resources ministry, the Water and Power Development Authority and the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority.

Well-placed sources in the Sindh government disclosed that Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah held a late night meeting on Sunday-Monday with Federal Law Minister Farooq Naek and Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission Salman Farooqi on the issue of coal authority.

“The Sindh Coal Authority is a statutory body created by a legislation of the Sindh Assembly in 1993. It cannot be abolished by a simple notification of the federal government,” the sources revealed the official position taken by the Sindh government in the meeting.

The Sindh chief minister was assisted by his cabinet colleagues, top bureaucrats and technical experts and legal advisers who spelt out in detail the ownership rights of minerals under the 1973 Constitution and in the 1995 mineral policy of the provincial government.

“The federally-controlled coal authority is a breach of the constitution and a politically explosive issue in the province,” the sources said.

The Sindh cabinet is meeting on Tuesday to take up an agenda which includes coal authority issue.

The Sindh mines and mineral department is understood to have given a working paper for the cabinet in which constitutional and legal position has been explained.

While the notification issued by the Cabinet Division on July 8 for setting up of a ‘provincial coal authority’ from Islamabad is being considered ‘ridiculous’, the PPP sources call it ‘embarrassing and irritating’ as the provincial government’s position on coal reserves was explained in details at a meeting of chief ministers of all four provinces, several federal ministers which was chaired by the prime minister himself.

“How can we take a public stand against our party’s government in Islamabad on a politically sensitive issue,” said an embarrassed and angry PPP activist, who is well-placed in the Sindh government.

Under the law, the Sindh Coal Authority has an eight-member board of directors, including four members of the Sindh Assembly and two members of the National Assembly drawn from coal-belt areas of the province. The other two are from private sector, preferably professionals and experts in mining and electric power business.

While coal-mining is an entirely provincial issue in the 1973 Constitution and in the 1995 National Mineral Policy, tariff fixation is a federal subject which has caused all the problems.

The Sindh government has now expressed intention to accommodate the federal natural resources ministry, Wapda and Nepra on the board to go ahead on a fast track for coal-fired projects.

Reports suggest receipt of six investment proposals of $12.5 billion from Pakistani and foreign companies who are keen to set up projects in Sindh.

With the inclusion of Nepra, Wapda and the federal ministry for natural resources in the board, the Sindh government wants to make approval of coal-fired projects one-window operation.