PM Imran chairs CCI meeting after a year-long hiatus
Chief ministers of all four provinces meet premier to discuss several contentious issues
Chief ministers of all four provinces meet the premier to discusses several contentious issues. PHOTO: PTI
Prime Minister Imran Khan chaired the 41st meeting of Council of Common Interests after a gap of more than a year on Monday.
Several contentious issues including an amendment to the Petroleum Policy 2012 and the construction of a power plant on the Chashma-Jhelum link canal were set to be discussed at the meeting.
All four chief ministers – Mahmood Khan (Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa), Sardar Usman Buzdar (Punjab), Jam Kamal Khan (Balochistan) and Syed Murad Ali Shah (Sindh) – attended the meeting.
Participants of the meeting were said to review the attorney general for Pakistan’s recommendations for a water distribution agreement between the provinces as well as the summary proposing the privatisation the 1,230MW Heveli Bahadar Shah and 1223MW Balloki power plants.
Sindh has opposed the Indus River System Authority (Irsa) issuing a no-objection certificate for the installation of a 25 megawatt hydro power plant on the CJ link canal.
The province believes that CJ link canal is neither a perennial canal nor a flood canal and therefore a hydro power power plant could not be built on it. It also argues that Irsa is not a competent forum to issue the NOC.
Sindh is also against the amendment to the Petroleum Policy 2012 under which the provincial government would have to pay 5% of the expenditures of the exploration work even if it did not succeed.
The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) deducting withholding tax at source from the provinces’ accounts was also on the agenda.
Balochistan was set to raise province’s stance over its claim on its natural resources in light of the 18th Amendment as well as it water issue with Sindh under the 1991 Irsa treaty.
A draft on the regulations for appointment of the chairman and other members of Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) will also presented at the meeting.
Other items on the 16-point agenda of the CCI meeting included the Alternate Renewable Energy policy, the import of LNG, the enforcement mechanism between the Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority (PSQCA) and the provincial food authorities, the alarming population growth rate in the country, the funding of devolved vertical programmes of health and population welfare, transfer of public money from the Provincial Consolidated Fund and the Federal Consolidated Fund by the State Bank on the direction of the FBR, the guidelines for the development of hydrocarbon seepage, the report of a committee constituted by CCI on the devolution of EOBI and workers welfare fund to the provinces, the future role and functioning of the National Commission for Human Development and Basic Education Community Schools to promote literacy in the country, the annual report of the CCI for the year 2016-17, matters pertaining to higher education in the post-18th Amendment scenario, the notification of census results, the royalty of LPG by E&P companies at the market value, implementation of Articles 158 and 172(3) of the Constitution, amendment to the OGRA Ordinance 2002 and the structural benchmark and performance criteria for the IMF’s Extended Fund Facility for Pakistan.
This will be updated...
Several contentious issues including an amendment to the Petroleum Policy 2012 and the construction of a power plant on the Chashma-Jhelum link canal were set to be discussed at the meeting.
All four chief ministers – Mahmood Khan (Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa), Sardar Usman Buzdar (Punjab), Jam Kamal Khan (Balochistan) and Syed Murad Ali Shah (Sindh) – attended the meeting.
Participants of the meeting were said to review the attorney general for Pakistan’s recommendations for a water distribution agreement between the provinces as well as the summary proposing the privatisation the 1,230MW Heveli Bahadar Shah and 1223MW Balloki power plants.
Sindh has opposed the Indus River System Authority (Irsa) issuing a no-objection certificate for the installation of a 25 megawatt hydro power plant on the CJ link canal.
The province believes that CJ link canal is neither a perennial canal nor a flood canal and therefore a hydro power power plant could not be built on it. It also argues that Irsa is not a competent forum to issue the NOC.
Sindh is also against the amendment to the Petroleum Policy 2012 under which the provincial government would have to pay 5% of the expenditures of the exploration work even if it did not succeed.
The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) deducting withholding tax at source from the provinces’ accounts was also on the agenda.
Balochistan was set to raise province’s stance over its claim on its natural resources in light of the 18th Amendment as well as it water issue with Sindh under the 1991 Irsa treaty.
A draft on the regulations for appointment of the chairman and other members of Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) will also presented at the meeting.
Other items on the 16-point agenda of the CCI meeting included the Alternate Renewable Energy policy, the import of LNG, the enforcement mechanism between the Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority (PSQCA) and the provincial food authorities, the alarming population growth rate in the country, the funding of devolved vertical programmes of health and population welfare, transfer of public money from the Provincial Consolidated Fund and the Federal Consolidated Fund by the State Bank on the direction of the FBR, the guidelines for the development of hydrocarbon seepage, the report of a committee constituted by CCI on the devolution of EOBI and workers welfare fund to the provinces, the future role and functioning of the National Commission for Human Development and Basic Education Community Schools to promote literacy in the country, the annual report of the CCI for the year 2016-17, matters pertaining to higher education in the post-18th Amendment scenario, the notification of census results, the royalty of LPG by E&P companies at the market value, implementation of Articles 158 and 172(3) of the Constitution, amendment to the OGRA Ordinance 2002 and the structural benchmark and performance criteria for the IMF’s Extended Fund Facility for Pakistan.
This will be updated...