Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has directed the chief secretary to write a letter to the secretariat of the Council of Common Interests (CCI) requesting it to include all pending issues of Sindh on the agenda for the next council meeting.
Shah issued the directives on Thursday while presiding over the preparatory meeting for the upcoming 39th session of the CCI.
According to the CM, various issues of Sindh province are pending discussion in the CCI. These include an amendment in the Petroleum Exploration & Production Policy 2012, unconstitutional and unauthorised deduction by the Federal Board of Revenue from the provincial consolidated fund (PCF), the allocation of 1,200 cusecs additional water for Karachi city (K-IV) project, the implementation of Article 154 of the Constitution, matters pertaining to higher education and other similar bodies in the post-18th amendment scenario, further enhancing the representation of provinces in the federal Higher Education Commission and import of LNG gas.
Shah said that he was yet to receive the agenda of the next CCI meeting scheduled to be held on September 12 under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Imran Khan. Therefore, he directed the chief secretary to send a written request to the CCI secretariat to include all the pending issues of his provincial government on the agenda of the CCI meeting. “Most of the issues are important and need urgent attention to resolve them in the supreme interest of the people of Sindh,” he said.
The CM pointed out that Karachi was facing an acute water shortage. “The current domestic consumption which currently stands at 12.75 gallons per capita per day is anticipated to increase further in the next coming years mainly because of the city’s high population growth,” he said.
Shah added that keeping in view the present demand and future strategy, the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board had calculated an additional demand of 1,200 cusecs to 2,400 cusecs of water in the city.
He further said that the Sindh Irrigation Department had approached the Indus River System Authority (IRSA) twice to allocate 1,200 cusecs additional drinking water for Karachi in addition to the provisions of the Water Accord 1991.
Irrigation Secretary Jamal Shah told the chief minister that IRSA had declined 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 is available for further distribution.
On this, the chief minister said that prior to the water accord 1991, 1,200 cusecs of water was sanctioned for Karachi on August 10, 1988 by the then president. “This 1,200 cusecs had been made part of the allocation for Sindh province mentioned at Para-2 of Water Accord 1991, but additional requirement of 1,200 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 out that the FBR had deducted Rs633.119 million in 2012-13, Rs6.127 billion in 2015-16 and Rs294.5 million in 2016-17. The chief minister said that the overall deduction comes to Rs7.054 billion and it was an unauthorised and unconstitutional deduction. “This amount belongs to the people of Sindh and it should be refunded,” he said, adding that apart from raising the issue it the CCI meeting, it should also be raised with the Ministry of Finance.
CM Shah directed his team to prepare the case for each and every pending issue so that he could take them up effectively in the CCI meeting.