Murad asks his team to prepare Sindh case for upcoming CCI moot
RECORDER REPORT
KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has directed the Chief Secretary to write a letter to the CCI secretariat for including all the pending issues of the province on the agenda of forthcoming CCI meeting.
He directed his team to prepare case for each and every pending issue so that he could take up them effectively in the CCI meeting.
The Chief Minister issued the directives, presiding over pre-39th CCI meeting, here on Thursday.
Sindh Minister for Excise and Taxation Mukesh Kumar Chawla, Minister for Energy Imtiaz Sheikh, Chief Secretary Major Azam Suleman (Retd), Principal Secretary Sohail Rajput, provincial secretaries for Energy, Irrigation, U&B and other concerned officers attended the meeting.
Murad Shah said that various issues of the provincial government were pending in the CCI which included: amendment to petroleum exploration & production policy 2012; unconstitutional and unauthorized deduction by Federal Board of Revenue from the provincial consolidated fund (PCF); allocation of 1200 cusecs of additional water for Karachi City (K-IV) project, implementation of Article 154 of the Constitution, matters pertaining to higher education and other similar bodies in the post-eighteenth amendment scenario, to further enhance the representation of provinces in the
federal HEC and import of LNG gas.
The Chief Minister said that still he has not received the agenda of the CCI meeting scheduled to be held on September 12, under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister.
Therefore, he 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 need urgent attention to be resolved in the supreme interest of people of Sindh,” he said.
CM Murad Shah said that megalopolis Karachi that is mini-Pakistan was facing acute water shortage although people hailing originally from all over the country live here.
“The current domestic consumption which currently stands at 12.75 gallon per capita per day is anticipated to drop further in the coming years mainly because of city’s high population growth,” he said, adding that keeping in view the present demand and future requirement, KWSB has worked out additional demand of 1200 cusecs to 2400 cusecs.
Shah 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.
Secretary irrigation Jamal Shah told the Chief Minister that IRSA has regretted the request and replied that any additional requirement of water supply to Karachi has to be met by Sindh out of its existing allocated share as no water outside the accord is available for further distribution.
The Chief Minister said that prior to water accord 1991, 1200 cusecs of water was sanctioned for Karachi on August 10, 1988 by the President.
“This 1200 cusecs water has been included in allocation of Sindh province mentioned at 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,” he said.
The matter of deduction by FBR from PCF also came under discussion. It was pointed that the FBR had deducted Rs633.119 million in 2012-13, Rs6,127.115 million in 2015-16 and Rs294.5 million in 2016-17.
Murad Shah said that overall deduction was Rs 7,054.734 million and it was unauthorized and unconstitutional deduction.
“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 be raised with Ministry of Finance as well.
