PESHAWAR, Oct 10: The Awami National Party (ANP) has expressed scepticism about Wapda abiding by the arbitration tribunal’s decision to pay Rs110 billion to the NWFP government from the net hydel profit.
In a statement issued here on Tuesday, ANP vice-president Haji Mohammad Adeel said the arbitration tribunal had no legal status.
“Instead this (arbitration) is a deviation from the constitution, which at least provides for constitutional guarantee to the mechanism of net hydel profit in the form of the AGN Kazi formula (devised) at the forum of Council of Common Interests,” he said.
He said that Wapda was bound to pay the outstanding amount to the NWFP government for a period between 1973 and 1991, roughly estimated at Rs550 billion.
“It seems as if that the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal government has written off the remaining Rs440 billion,” he said, adding that despite a constitutional protection to the AGN Kazi formula and a guarantee order issued by former president Ghulam Ishaq Khan, Wapda had refused to accept the NWFP’s constitutional right.
“The arbitration tribunal has no constitutional or legal status. The provincial government has not either revealed its terms of reference to the media,” he said.
Haji Adeel called upon the MMA government to release the complete text of the decision, announced by the arbitration commission, to the print and electronic media.
He said the NWFP government was also silent over the dues outstanding against Wapda for 18 years. He said former prime minister Zafarullah Jamali had also promised that Rs8 billion would be paid to the NWFP but to no avail, he said.
He said according to NWFP Finance Minister Sirajul Haq, Wapda would make payment of Rs110 billion in instalments over the next five years.
“What if Wapda refuses to accept the decision? Which doors shall the NWFP government knock at?” he said.
In a separate statement issued on Tuesday, ANP provincial president Bashir Ahmed Bilour said the arbitration tribunal’s decision was meaningless till its approval from the provincial assembly.
Mr Bilour said it was the ANP-PML coalition government which had managed to secure Rs6 billion from Wapda in 1991 in terms of net hydel profit.