Court of arbitration: ‘Ex-adviser caused delay in Kishenganga case’

Indus water commissioner says former adviser wanted lawyers of his choice.


Express May 10, 2011

ISLAMABAD:


Indus Water Commissioner Sheraz Jamil Memon on Monday alleged that a former special assistant to the prime minister had caused a delay in pursuing a case against India on the Kishenganga hydropower project in the Court of Arbitration.


Briefing the Senate Standing Committee on Water and Power, Memon said that the former prime minister’s special assistant on water resources and agriculture Kamal Majeedullah caused the delay as he insisted on hiring a lawyer of his choice.

He said that India had completed 21 projects on Western rivers, including Jhelum, Chenab and Indus.

“The court’s first meeting was held at the Hague on January 14, 2011, and it was decided that Pakistan will submit its case in May 2011. The Pakistani team was headed by Majeedullah,” Memon said.

He said that Pakistan had decided in 2005 to go to court and appointed three foreign lawyers. “During the first proceeding of the court, I had insisted that a stay order be obtained against the construction of the Kishenganga Dam but Majeedullah did not agree.”

He said that water of Kishenganga River will be diverted through a 23-kilometer-long tunnel and produce 300MW of power. It will
join Wullar Lake and ultimately flow down through Jhelum to Muzaffarabad. The scheme, if implemented by India, will result in a shortfall of about 21 per cent of Neelum inflow for Pakistan’s Neelum-Jhelum Hydroelectric Project, thus reducing its energy generation by 10 per cent.

Memon said that India is working on 17 power projects on the Chenab River and another 16 projects on the Jhelum River. Meanwhile, Chairperson of the Water and Power Develop­ment Authority Shakeel Durrani told the panel that the groundbreaking ceremony of Diamer-Bhasha dam will be held on May 24. He said that consultant firms had been shortlisted to make a detailed engineering design of Munda dam.

Flood rehabilitation

Federal Flood Commission (FFC) Chairperson Asjad Imtiaz Ali said that scarcity of funds has hampered restoration work of flood-hit areas in Balochistan, Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) and Gilgit-Baltistan.

Ali said that Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa had completed short-term restoration work while Sindh has finished 90 per cent of the work. However, the panel refused to accept that Balochistan had finished 95 per cent of the work and that Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa had completed 100 per cent of it.

He said that work began late in Sindh, which had to prioritise projects due to lack of funds.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 10th, 2011.

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