ISLAMABAD, July 7: The government told the Senate on Wednesday that it was seeking an early settlement of the NWFP complaint about non-payment of its full share of net profit from electricity generated there.
Water and Power Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, speaking on an adjournment motion tabled by Senator Farhatullah Babar of the People's Party Parliamentarians, said the government had taken a 'positive initiative' by calling a meeting of an arbitration committee on Saturday.
The issue sparked some heat in the house where all opposition parties staged a token walkout after acting chairman Khalilur Rehman disallowed more senators to speak on the motion, which he ruled out of order after the minister's statement.
Mr Sherpao said the committee, comprising two members each from Wapda and the NWFP government of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, had been called to determine modalities about how to move on the issue. "The government wants to settle the dispute as soon as possible," he added.
He said the government was already paying the NWFP government Rs6 billion annually on the electricity profit account and, after a settlement, it would not hesitate to pay arrears, which the NWFP government estimates to be more than Rs300 billion.
The minister described the agreement on arbitration as a success of the present government, which he said was serious about the issue. "We wish the issue is settled as soon as possible and the province gets it right."
LONG DELAY: Mr Babar complained of a prolonged delay in resolving the issue that he said had forced his home province to take loans worth Rs34 billion with an annual mark-up equal to its development budget.
He said the constitutional requirement to pay a province net profits earned from hydel power generated there was not being fulfilled in the case of the NWFP despite a formula given by the A.G.N. Kazi Committee (set up in 1986), whose acceptance by the Council of Common Interests in January 1991 was followed by a presidential order in June 1991 to implement it.
He said 13 years had passed but the order had not been implemented, and accused the government and Wapda of violating the constitution provision and the CCI decision. The PPP senator said the situation was causing resentment in the NWFP which was facing worse poverty and illiteracy than other provinces and which had been hit in the industrial field after the Gadoon Amazai industrial estate was turned into an 'industrial graveyard' by the withdrawal of tax concessions.
"The NWFP is not asking charity but its right," he stressed. Awami National Party leader Asfandyar Wali Khan and some senators from the MMA also wanted to speak on the matter, but the chair disallowed any more discussion, triggering the brief token opposition walkout.
Mr Babar and MMA's Prof Mohammad Ibrahim Khan again complained of the deprivation of the NWFP when they spoke on a joint call-attention notice about the inability of the government to reach an accord on the sixth NFC award.
Prof Ibrahim said the provinces faced 'great' difficulties in the absence of a fresh accord on their share in federal revenues as they had to prepare the new budgets on the basis of the previous award.
He urged the federal government to be a little more flexible after agreeing to give 47.4pc of the revenues to the provinces, compared to their demand for 50pc. Mr Babar accused Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz of vetoing all the provinces, which he said should disregard such a veto in future and send their recommendations to the president.