Daily Times

KARACHI: The Sindh government has decided to take all the pending issues of the province on the agenda of the upcoming meeting of Council of Common Interests (CCI).

Council of Common Interests (CCI) is an inter-provincial body that has representation from all provinces. The CCI was reconstituted after the formation of the new government following the 2018 general election. The 39th meeting of CCI is scheduled on September 12.

Sindh Chief Minister (CM) Syed Murad Ali Shah, while presiding over a meeting to discuss points of importance for the CCI meeting, directed the Sindh chief secretary to write to the CCI secretariat and request the inclusion of all pending issues of Sindh into the agenda of the upcoming CCI meeting.

During the meeting, CM Murad noted that various issues of the provincial government were pending in the CCI, including amendment in petroleum exploration and production policy 2012, unconstitutional and unauthorized deduction by Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) from the provincial consolidated fund (PCF), allocation of 1200 cusecs additional water for Karachi city (K-IV) project and implementation of Article 154 of the Constitution. He pointed out that matters pertaining to higher education and other similar bodies in post-eighteenth amendment scenario to further enhance the representation of provinces in the federal Higher Education Commission (HEC) and import of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) were some of the long standing issues that were pending.

The chief minister (CM) informed the meeting that he had still not received the agenda of the CCI meeting to be held on September 12 under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister of Pakistan. CM Murad then directed the chief secretary to send a written request to the CCI secretariat to include all the pending issues of Sindh government on the agenda of the CCI meeting. “Most of the issues are important and they require our urgent attention. The resolution of these issues would be in the supreme interest of people of Sindh,” he asserted.

Murad Ali Shah said that Karachi was facing acute water shortage and the metropolis was known as ‘mini-Pakistan’ because people from all over the country came to live in Karachi. “The current domestic consumption which currently stands at 12.75 gallon per capita per day is anticipated to rise further in the next few years because of Karachi’s high population growth,” said the chief minister. He added that keeping in view the present demand and future strategy Karachi Water and Sewage Board (KWSB) had worked out an additional demand of 1200 cusecs to 2400 cusecs. He further said that the Irrigation Department approached Indus River System Authority (IRSA) twice to allocate 1200 cusecs additional drinking water for Karachi in addition to the provision of water accord 1991.

Irrigation secretary Jamal Shah told the CM that IRSA had rejected the request and replied that any additional requirement of water supply to Karachi had to be met by Sindh out of its existing allocated share as no water outside the accord was available for further distribution. At this, the chief minister pointed out that prior to water accord 1991, 1200 cusecs of water were sanctioned for Karachi on August 10, 1988 by the President. “This 1200 cusecs water has been included in allocation of Sindh province mentioned in Para-2 of water Accord 1991, but additional requirement of 1200 cusecs water for the city has not been included in the share of the province,” CM Murad told the meeting.

The matter of deduction by FBR from PCF also extensively came under discussion during the meeting. It was pointed that the FBR had deducted Rs633.119 mn in 2012-13, Rs6,127.115 mn in 2015-16 and Rs294.5 mn in 2016-17. On this CM Murad said that over all, the deducted sum amounted to Rs7054.734 mn. He then declared the deduction ‘unauthorised and unconstitutional’. “This amount belongs to people of Sindh and it will be refunded,” he said and added that apart from taking it up in the CCI meeting the matter must also be discussed with the Ministry of Finance.

The Chief Minister directed his team to prepare a case for each and every pending issue so that he could take up them effectively in the CCI meeting.

The meeting was attended by Excise & Taxation minister Mukesh Kumwar Chawla, Energy m,inister Imtiaz Shaikh, Sindh Chief Secretary Major (retd) Azam Suleman, Principal secretary Sohail Rajput, Energy, Irrigation proncial secretaries and other relevant officials.

Published in Daily Times, September 7^th 2018.