ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on Water and Power has directed the government to notify appointment of two members of the Indus River System Authority (Irsa) within a week.

A meeting of the committee presided over by Zahid Khan of the Awami National Party here on Wednesday was stunned to know that the posts of member Balochistan and federal in Irsa were lying vacant for more than two years and the one holding the post of chairman and federal member temporarily had gone abroad for training.

Additional Secretary for Water and Power Arshad Mirza told the meeting that the post of member federal had been vacant since the federal member from Sindh completed his term two years ago and the post of member from Balochistan was also vacant.

He said under Article 4 of the Irsa Act, Asjad Imtiaz Elahi, the chairman of the Federal Flood Commission, was acting as federal member and chairman of Irsa.

The committee said that Irsa was a sensitive institution, responsible for looking after a crucial function of distribution of provincial water shares, but it lacked two members out of a total of five.

It directed the water and power ministry to appoint full-time members immediately.

The Water and Power Ministry’s representative informed the committee that it had forwarded two summaries to the cabinet secretariat for appointment of two full-time members and they were pending before the prime minister’s secretariat.

The committee directed the government to expedite the process and notify appointments within a week.

An official said although it was a prerogative of the federal government, Wapda had nominated its former official Chaudhry Mushtaq for the post of Irsa’s federal member.

He said the Balochistan government had sent the name of Mohammad Nasim Bazai, a former secretary planning, to represent it in Irsa.

“The two nominations were sent to the prime minister’s secretariat in January,” he said, but the summaries were not taken up by the former prime minister.

Abdul Ghafoor Haideri of the JUI-F said electricity shortage had made impossible for party leaders to go for election campaign of their candidates.

Maula Bukhsh Chandio of the PPP said officials of Wapda and water and power ministry always hoodwinked the parliamentarians through ‘lollypops’, instead of looking for permanent solutions.

Shahi Syed of the ANP wondered why the government was not providing furnace oil to fully utilise generation capacity.

The water and power ministry said about 28,000 tons per day of furnace oil was required to utilise thermal power capacity, but only 14,000 tons were being supplied for paucity of funds.

The committee directed the ministry and Wapda to submit a detailed report in the next meeting on steps required to overcome the power crisis.