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he issue of new canals in the Indus Basin has been resolved through consensus and dialogue among the federating units.
On April 28, a meeting of the Council of Common Interests was attended by Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif, Federal Minister for Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan Engr Amir Muqam and the provincial chief ministers.
The meeting endorsed the federal government’s decision to halt the canals project until after “mutual understanding” was achieved among the provinces.
A press release issued after the meeting said: “The CCI endorses the policy of the federal government as given below: The federal government has decided that no new canals will be built without mutual understanding. It has been decided that the federal government will not move further until mutual understanding is evolved among the provinces.”
The CCI also endorsed the government’s move to engage all provincial governments to chart out a long-term consensus roadmap for the development of agriculture policy and water management infrastructure across Pakistan and to form a committee with representation from the federation and all provinces to allay the concerns of all provinces and to ensure the country’s food and ecological security.
It added that the committee would propose solutions to Pakistan’s long-term agricultural needs and water use in line with the Water Apportionment Accord, 1991, and Water Policy, 2018.
“Water is one of the most precious commodities. The makers of the constitution recognised this, mandating that all water disputes be resolved through mutual understanding and concerns of any province be addressed through due diligence by all stakeholders,” the press release said. As a result, the statement said, the CCI also decided that the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council’s provisional approval dated February 7, 2024, for the construction of new canals and the Indus River System Authority’s water availability certificate issued in its meeting dated January 17, 2024, be returned.
The federal government’s decision came after widespread political agitation in Sindh.
Thousands of people had reached Babarlore in Khairpur district and Kashmore to halt traffic between Sindh and the other provinces. The protesters, led by lawyers’ organsations , braved the scorching summer heat. Undeterred by hardship, lawyers, political workers and others, including a number of women and children, continued the sit-in agitation for 11 days. Meanwhile, thousands of cargo vehicles remained stranded on the northbound roads, cutting the supply of imports.
This may have forced the provincial and federal governments’ hand in convening the CCI. The CCI should normally meet once every three months. However, the meetings have frequently been delayed under successive governments. The summaries moved by the Sindh government against the proposed canals had thus remained unaddressed for several months.
In the end, good sense prevailed. The CCI returned the new canals proposal to the Planning Commission and the water availability certificate to the Indus River System Authority. Both these federal bodies were directed to seek the concurrence of all stakeholders and address the concerns of all provinces before considering the project. The council held that no new canals shall be constructed until consensus is reached at the CCI. Most people saw the CCI declaration as an announcement that the canals project had been shelved, at least for now. However, some sceptics continue to worry that the door has not been closed for consensus at an opportune time. It may be recalled that the Kalabagh Dam project has not been revived since an agreement was reached not to pursue it without consensus.
There are a bunch of lessons for decision-makers in the recent episode. The thrust for the project only added a layer to a heap of chronic mistrust. The tension over sharing the Indus River water goes back more than a century. After the Punjab witnessed explosive agricultural growth spurred by development of several canal colonies in the 19th Century, the Bombay government, then representing the interests of Sindh, pointed out that water withdrawals during the Rabi season had risen from 1,400 cusecs in 1867–68 to 28,000 cusecs in 1921-22. The canal-irrigated area of the Punjab increased from 3 million acres in 1885 to 14 million acres in 1947.
A report presented by the Public Works Department of the Bombay presidency in 1927 had argued against Indus River water diversion to the Punjab. The report, The Government of Bombay Case on the Bombay-Punjab Controversy in regard to the Withdrawals of Water from the River Indus and its Tributaries, argued specifically against the Thal Canal project. It concluded: “I am therefore to request the Government of India to decide finally that the Thal Canal Project shall not be carried out. Failing this, the Governor in Council expresses the earnest hope and urges that the Government of the Punjab be informed that the Government of India will not entertain any proposals whatsoever which involves further withdrawals, however small, from the Indus and its tributaries during the Rabi and early and late Abkalani seasons, until the Lloyd Barrage and Canals Project has been in operation for a sufficiently long time after its completion, and until it can be definitely proved that there is adequate water not only for that project but also for the requirements of Lower Sindh and that there is a surplus which can be utilised in the Punjab without detriment to the irrigational interests in Sindh as a whole.”
Disagreements on water sharing between the two provinces continued in the subsequent decades. The Kalabagh Dam was similarly halted on account of staunch resistance from Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
It is sad that institutions like the CCI and the IRSA, created for tackling inter-provincial disagreements, have lost credibility. These institutions should have been allowed to function independently. Interference in their domain under pressure jeopardised their image of impartial entities. Last year, there was an attempt to amend the IRSA Act to dilute the provinces’ role in decision-making and bring the body under a more powerful chairman to be appointed by the federal government.
It has been suggested that the president’s office was misused to claim a purported approval for the so-called strategic canals. Next, the inordinate delay in the convening of the CCI meeting, deprived the provincial governments of the opportunity to raise their objections at the mandated forum. Consequently, the controversy reached a boiling point and a mass movement followed. Had these institutions been functioning autonomously, divergent views could have been amicably brought to a peaceful convergence.
The writer is a civil society professional; nmemon2004yahoo.com