ISLAMABAD, July 7: The Presidency has rejected the resignation tendered by Chairman of Technical Committee on Water Resources, A N G Abbasi, and relevant institutions have been asked to provide him every possible support to complete his report, Dawn has learnt.

Mr Abbasi had sent his resignation to the President and the ministry of water and power quoting "personal grounds", but he had a list of grievances and complaints of non-cooperation from various government departments.

Mr Abbasi was called to the Presidency on Wednesday where he had a meeting with the Chief of Staff to the President, Lt-Gen Hamid Javed, informed sources told Dawn. The meeting discussed all the relevant issues.

"Mr Abbasi's resignation is deemed withdrawn, and he has been advised to continue his assigned activities," said a senior government official quoting a letter issued by the Presidency.

Mr Abbasi, said these sources, was flabbergasted over non-release of Rs5 million approved by the President for the expenses of the technical committee, non-cooperation of the Planning Commission to give presentation or respond to a list of questions raised by him and some problems being created by members of the technical committee.

The sources said Mr Abbasi had convened a meeting on June 22 where the Planning Commission was asked to give a presentation on key water sector issues and projects. The Planning Commission had told the committee that technically it was not under any obligation to brief the technical committee.

Similarly, Mr Abbasi had also raised questions over approval by the Planning Commission of some water sector projects without feasibility studies. The Planning Commission had not responded to these queries.

The sources said a recommendation had been submitted to the government to merge the technical committee with the parliamentary committee and the joint committee should be headed by Senator Nisar Memon. This was not acceptable to Mr Abbasi.