Chashma-Jhelum hydel project: Sindh scurries for response to IRSA challenge

Authority’s chief has dismissed Sindh Assembly’s resolution as ‘unnecessary meddling’; PPP MPA files privilege...

KARACHI: The Indus River System Authority (IRSA) has thrown down the gauntlet to Sindh it seems.

Both the province’s government and the opposition have been on one page when it comes to opposing the construction of a hydroelectric project on the already contentious Chashma-Jhelum (CJ) Link Canal which the federal body granted clearance to on October 17.

The Sindh government has strongly protested the IRSA move, terming it unconstitutional and beyond the authority’s mandate. The Sindh Assembly passed a unanimous resolution condemning IRSA for green-lighting the controversial 24 megawatt energy project and MPAs from the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) took the matter up with the prime minister.

Not even a provincial assembly motion, however, was enough to sway the federal body from its decision. In what appears to be an open challenge, the IRSA chairperson rebuffed the move a few days ago, saying: “IRSA is not bound to obey the orders of any assembly or institution.” Calling the Sindh Assembly resolution ‘unnecessary meddling’ into IRSA affairs, he added that the motion carried no weight whatsoever.

That the IRSA chief’s latest statement has irked both the Sindh authorities and the lawmakers goes without saying. For now, however, neither of them seem to have any meaningful response lined up.

Sindh rejects Centre’s representative for IRSA

Speaking to The Express Tribune, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) MPA Heer Ismail Soho said she has moved a privilege motion against the IRSA chairperson in the Sindh Assembly which will be taken up very soon. “PPP lawmakers will demand action against him. Calling a resolution of the Sindh Assembly ‘unnecessary’ not only constitutes a sheer breach of the privilege of this august house, but also leads to a violation of the people’s mandate reposed in their representatives in this house,” she stressed.

Soho insisted that the Punjab government and the IRSA authorities had already flouted the law by building the CJ Link Canal and were now involved in a further violation. “How can one build a power plant on a flood canal? How can IRSA grant a no-objection certificate to a project that falls under the purview of the Council of Common Interests and the Inter-Provincial Coordination Department,” she asked.

The CJ Link Canal has been a bone of contention between Sindh and Punjab for years now. Sindh government officials have accused the Punjab government and federal bureaucracy of conspiring to change the flood canal’s status from non-perennial to perennial. The former have repeatedly accused IRSA of allowing the release of water in the canal during non-flood times. They claim the plan to build a powerplant on the canal is the latest attempt to switch the canal’s status.

The spokesperson for the Sindh Chief Minister House said that the chief minister has written a number of letters to the prime minister, the Ministry of Water and Power, and the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA), but to no avail.

“Sindh being in the lower riparian will face severe water scarcity if a power plant is built on the CJ canal. The project will result in more water flowing through this canal which will disrupt the lives of those live in the Indus Delta,” he said.

The spokesperson added that for now the federal government seems unwilling to convene a CCI meeting. “The chief minister will take this issue up at the forum whenever one is held.”

The proposed hydroelectric plant on CJ Link Canal is being built by a private company hired by the Punjab government and is estimated to cost $59 million. It is expected that construction will be complete in three years’ time.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 17^th, 2019.