Provincial Minister for Information and Inter-Provincial Co-ordination Mian Iftikhar Hussain said on Thursday that the ruling coalition partners in NWFP would effectively plead its case about Pukhtoonkhwa in the next meeting of the Inter-Provincial Co-ordination Committee (IPCC) and no flexibility would be shown in this effect.
He expressed these views while chairing a meeting of the Inter-Provincial Co-ordination Department. The meeting reviewed in detail matters related to levying tax on cellular mobile towers, allocation of drinking and irrigation water for Azad Jammu & Kashmir, Islamabad and Rawalpindi, 75-25 percent development share formula of the federal government, and the outstanding amount to be paid by the federal government to the provincial government in the heads of security.
The meeting also discussed the implementation of the decisions made in the last meeting regarding the electricity duty adjustment, ownership of infrastructure, delay in timely replacement of the defective meters of electricity and the establishment of testing laboratory for testing the electricity meters.
Many important decisions were made to this effect. The meeting decided that the provincial government would suggest imposing annual renewal fee of Rs 10,000 on cellular mobile operators and to pay the dues in heads of security by the federal government.
About the allocation of water for Azad Jammu & Kashmir, Islamabad and Rawalpindi, the provincial government is of the view that since the above mentioned areas are not included in the water treaty, and the province is already receiving less water of its due share. Therefore, the province is not in a position to give water to any other area. Besides, the provincial government has reservations about the 75-25 percent development share formula.
Therefore, the provincial minister said that in the next meeting of the Inter-Provincial Co-ordination Committee he would raise the point of ensuring implementation of the decisions made in this important forum so as the sense of deprivation among the province could be mitigated. Secretary Inter-Provincial Co-ordination Muhammad Humayun Khan, Secretary Irrigation Ashfaq Khan and other concerned authorities of Planning and Development, Environment and Police departments attended the meeting.
Comments
Comments are closed.