The standoff between Sindh and Punjab has started assuming ominous proportions threatening to get out of hand.The Sindh Assembly recently passed a resolution opposing the on-going construction of the Thal Canal. The ruling and the opposition parties joined hands, while passing the unanimous resolution.
This comes on top of a sense of dejection on the part mostly of rural population represented by its largest political party, the PPP, at having been left out of the loop by being denied the provincial government. Were this an aberration it might be worthy of contempt.
But the effort is consistent with a series of exasperating steps taken by the federal government, now or in the past. After the micro managed October 2002 elections, largest parties were allowed to form government in other three provinces. But this principle was violated with alacrity in Sindh. The resentment therefore runs deeper than could easily be discerned by the naive.
The Provincial Assembly in its unanimous resolution recommended that the government of Sindh should invoke Article 155 of the Constitution and take its case to the Council of Common Interest. It is a different matter that this constitutional body has not formed for the last three and a half years.
That is a clear breach of the constitution. In the absence of an important constitutional safeguard, people are left to agitate these issues in other forums. Even the Constitution itself is a victim of frequent vivisection and has now become a hotly debated issue with the real rulers refusing to loosen their reins on power.
On the day following the resolution passed by the Sindh Provincial Assembly, the Sindh Water Committee (SWC) met in Hyderabad and congratulated the Sindh Assembly for adopting a unanimous resolution against the illegal and unconstitutional construction of the canal.
The Committee also urged the officials of Punjab, ‘to rise above petty selfishness and abandon water projects harmful to Sindh.’ The statement went on to say that officials of the Punjab government should restrain themselves from harming the integrity of the country by issuing totally inane or outright provocative statements. The SWC was presided over by the chief of Awami Tehrik, Mr. Rasool Bux Palejo.
The SWC also decided to organize on April 13 ‘Stop Construction of Greater Thal Canal Conference’ and invite MPAs who had supported the resolution in the assembly. About 8 months back they had held a seminar on the subject in Multan in June 2002 where a large number of Seraiki and Sindhi nationalists and intellectuals had expressed their opposition to the project. They expressed an apprehension that the project will result in the colonization of the area by people belonging to other provinces and provide the locals a firm basis for permanent resentment.
Wapda should cease to be an instrument of inter provincial divisiveness by trying to become a mouthpiece of the largest province and stop adding fuel to fire by issuing provocative statements.
It has earned its reputation both as delayer of projects and for being very miserly with truth. There was a press report quoting Wapda chairman that ‘two phases have been completed and the next two will also be completed by 2007’, a year ahead of schedule.
A patent lie indeed. According to the Annual Progress Report on PSDP Projects (July - June 2001-02), physical progress in 2001-02 had been only 47 per cent of that planned, and financial progress has been less than 50 per cent (Rs236 million against Rs500 million).
The Annual Progress Report has this to say:
‘The project is located in Khushab, Bhakkar, Layyah and Jhang Districts in Punjab province. It envisages construction of 23 miles main canal, 31 miles of branch canals and 615 miles of distributaries. Earthwork on 15 RDs (5 RDs equal a mile) has been completed and earthwork on 50 RDs is in process. Out of 3,100 acres, only 722 acres have been acquired.
‘Against an allocation of Rs500 million (2001-02) only Rs283 million were utilized. Physical progress on the project is very slow, as it has failed to consume the demanded/allocated funds. If the current pace of work continues, the project is likely to be delayed’.
Wapda’s Monthly Progress Report, January 2003, tells the same dismal story. During the seven months of the current year, Wapda has spent Rs95.4 million against an allocation of Rs1200 million, which is neither here nor there. Rs364 million have been spent so far in the last two years, of which Rs235 million have been transferred to the government of the Punjab for land acquisition.
That means that except for minor earthwork there is no major breakthrough.. This should send a cheer among the opponents of the project. With so little physical and financial progress, Wapda appears to have been overwhelmed by its newfound self-confidence flowing from its sense of self-perceived achievements and therefore wishes us to believe that it can advance the date of completion by full one year to 30th June 2007.
It knows full well that by the time present managers will be no more and even otherwise, in the long run we are all dead and there will be no accountability for such false claims.
That its optimism is totally misplaced is borne out by the poor track record on other projects. The facts are quite the contrary and presage delays and even abandonment as a result of any of the unforeseen things happening.
They include short funding, failure to acquire land and lack of water in the canal for floods refusing to materialise as forecast by Wapda.
All these are likely to happen in unison. In the backdrop of these damning reports, it beats credulity of an ordinary person to accept either Wapda’s claims of having made rapid progress or to swallow its assertions that the project will be completed one year in advance.
To recapitulate for the readers who may have missed my earlier article written several months back, the project was approved at a cost of Rs30.5 billion, (more than half a billion dollars) and was to be completed by 30th June 2008.
The project was approved by the Ecnec on 28th February 2002, but in its Monthly Report, there appears a hilarious entry. Instead of the date it says that,
‘The President of Pakistan inaugurated the project on 16.8.2000’. How can a project be inaugurated before its approval? This only shows bad faith in as much as the approval of Ecnec was a mere formality, the decision having been taken beforehand.
Not much has been lost and it will be a small price to pay for the sake of provincial harmony to halt the project at this stage. The cause of national interest in cohesion and harmony will be severely undermined otherwise. It is no use adding controversies to the long list of Sindh grievances like unfair National Finance Commission Award, water distribution and Kala Bagh. The project makes no sense on account of lack of availability of flood fwaters.
A perception has taken hold in Sindh that this highly controversial and divisive exercise has been undertaken for the sole benefit of bureaucrats, some civil and mostly military, who have been allotted 0.5 million acres of land at a throw away price of Rs350 per acre. Obviously this cannot be true.