ISLAMABAD: The opposition members on Wednesday registered a protest against the alleged injustice in distribution of water among the provinces saying that the federal government was not implementing the Water Accord of 1991.
The parliamentarians from Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), including Nawab Muhammad Yusuf Talpur, Syed Naveed Qamar, Shahzia Marri and others, while raising the water distribution issue in the National Assembly said the government was committing a violation of the Constitution.
Nawab Yusuf Talpur, who did not agree with the statement of the Minister for Water and Power, said the Sindh province was getting less water than its share as agreed in the 1991 Water Accord.
Challenging the statement of the minister, Talpur said the bureaucrats sitting in his ministry have not provided him the correct figure as the Water Accord was never implemented. Shazia Marri also said the Water Accord was not being implemented fully in most parts of the country saying the practice was based on bad intentions which was not in the interest of the Federation.
Syed Naveed Qamar said that as per the 1991 Water Accord, it was agreed that shortage of water would equally be shared by the provinces. Dr. Fahmida Mirza and Munawwar Ali Talpur said they accepted the 1991 Water Accord with reservations questioning whether the Sindh province was receiving the agreed share from water on daily basis. “We accepted the water accord with reservations but feel that what was agreed should be implemented,” Dr. Fahmida Mirza said. Minister for Water and Power Javed Ali Shah said there has been no violation of the 1991 Water Accord. However, he pointed out that the provinces were sharing shortage of water while the Sindh province was still getting more water than its share. He said the federal government had no bad intention of providing any province less water than its share.
Meanwhile, the Minister for Water Resources Javed Ali Shah told the House during the question-hour that it is for the first time in the country’s history that a National Water Policy is to be announced on 22nd of this month; it has been formulated covering all aspects including water conservation and storage.
He said that a steering committee will oversee the implementation of water policy. Meanwhile, Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, during question- hour, took a serious notice of absence of senior officials of the Ministry of Water and Power during the question and ordered their suspension. He noticed that a junior officer like the Section Officer of the ministry was present in the officials’ gallery.
Minister for Water and Power assured the chair that he would suspend the officer who was present in the gallery. According to the proposed implementation mechanism given in the draft NWP, a Policy Implementation Steering Committee shall steer implementation of the policy through heads of following ministries and departments. Project is proposed to be constructed across Swat River at a distance of about 48 kms from Peshawar and 5 km upstream of the existing Munda Headworks in Mohmand Agency. He said the project would help generate 800 megawatts of electricity besides irrigating 16,700 acres of land and funds are available for this project and efforts will be made to complete it at the earliest.
MQM parliamentarian Shaikh Salahuddin, on a point of order, pointed out that eight to 10 MNAs of his party have received a letter from FIA according to which they have been asked to appear before the agency’s officer in connection with investigations into a money laundering case.
He said that the MQM parliamentarians were being maligned and harassed on allegations levelled by a person like Sarfraz Merchant. He said with the FIA’s action, their privilege has been breached. However, Deputy Speaker Murtaza Javed Abbasi asked them to raise the issue through a privilege motion.
Dr. Fahmida Mirza appreciated the decision of the Supreme Court regarding transfers in bureaucracy prior to the next general elections. She said the exercise would minimise the element of rigging.
Minister for Defence Khurram Dastgir put before the House “The Joint Maritime Information Organisation Bill, 2018.” The minister said the bill is aimed at establishing an institution to consolidate all the information pertaining to maritime affairs. The House also passed two bills including “The Establishment of Federal Bank for Cooperatives and Regulation of Cooperative Banking (Repeal) Bill, 2017” and “The House Building Finance Corporation (Repeal) Bill, 2017”. The bills were moved by Minister of State for Finance Rana Muhammad Afzal Khan.