AJK not getting financial share, hydel profits: PM

ISLAMABAD: Azad Jammu and Kashmir Prime Minister Chaudhry Anwarul Haq appeared before a panel of the Upper House of Parliament on Wednesday and complained that the federal government was not paying its constitutional financial share and hydel profits.

The AJK premier spoke to the Senate Standing Committee on Finance, which met under the chairmanship of Senator Saleem Mandviwalla here on Wednesday.

He said the AJK had displaced its cities for the construction of Mangla Dam and the Neelum-Jhelum Hydropower Project in its territory and provided 2,660 MW of electricity, but its requirement was just standing at 350 MWs. Now the federal government has deducted its outstanding dues of Rs61 billion but has not bothered to pay its share of Rs400 billion from net hydel profit. There is an agreement on the net hydel profit share in the case of one dam, but it is missing in the case of the second one, he added.

Now we have been squeezed so much that the people have started raising their voices, he said, reminding under Article 157 of the Constitution, AJK was guaranteed to be provided 3.46 percent of the Federal Divisible Pool (FDP). He said when all governments at the federal and provincial levels had raised the salaries of their employees, AJK was given advice not to increase the salaries of 109,000 employees in its public sector. Then he was left with no other choice but to slash down the annual development plan for raising salaries in the budget.

Secretary Finance Imdad Bosal replied that the net hydel profit-related issue would be taken up with the Ministry of Power. He said the government had provided Rs70 billion to AJK for the current fiscal year, up from Rs59 billion in the last financial year. The AJK premier again protested the wording of the grant and said that it was the constitutional share of AJK. He said that there should be no deduction in the share of AJK, and the federal government should release the whole committed amount.

He said he did not know how power distribution companies used to calculate their outstanding dues against AJK. The AJK dams generated cheap electricity, and when it became part of the national grid, consumers were charged much higher rates. Now the people of AJK have started protests against inflated power bills, and he did not have the words to justify such billing. Protests had started in parts of AJK but now spread all over the country, he added. The committee members unanimously supported AJK’s demands and asked the Ministry of Finance and Power to find an amicable solution to the problems.