IPCC meets on December 16

The Inter-Provincial Coordination Committee (IPCC) is meeting in Lahore on December 16 under the chairmanship of Federal Minister Inter-Provincial Coordination Saleem Saifullah Khan with five issues pertaining to Sindh province having been included in the agenda.
The details of the issues were highlighted by Sindh Minister for Provincial Coordination, Dr Sohrab Khan Sarki at a press conference here on Thursday. Secretary IPC Mehtab Rashdi was also present on the occasion.
The Sindh related issues that would come up in the IPCC are privatisation of Lakhra Power Plant, sharing of expenditure incurred on law and order improvement, dues of Provincial autonomous corporations against federal government organisations, cash development loans and assistance for mines and mineral development department.
He referred to the decision taken by the then prime minister in March 1995 whereby Sindh government incurred 50 percent expenditure on law and order maintenance up to financial year 1994-93 while for expenditures for 1995-96 to 1999-2000, Sindh government has approached ministry of finance but no response received in this regard so far.
He informed that this matter was discussed in the IPCC meeting held in May 2000, whereafter Sindh government filed another detailed reference. Dr Sarki said Sindh government spent Rs 3,034.94 million during the period from 2000-01 to 2004-05 on Pakistan Rangers and Frontier Constabulary and the share of federal government comes to Rs 1,517.47 million.
Dr Sohrab Sarki also referred to the decision taken in Islamabad on June 12, 2001 regarding Lakhra Power Plant and coalfield privatisation with directive to Sindh government to take a decision in this regard in consultation with Wapda. Sindh Privatisation Commission, he pointed out, has approached Wapda with regard to privatisation of Lakhra Power Plant and determination of tariff.
He said Sindh government, which is 25 percent shareholder has given approval to privatisation of Lakhra power generation plant. He said ownership of leased mines will remain with the Sindh government and those wishing to get lease will have to resign the agreement for coal exploration.
The minister pointed out that dues of a number of provincial autonomous organisations are outstanding against federal government departments, which are still unpaid.
In this regard, he cited the example of Hyderabad Water and Sewerage Authority established in 1977. He said this authority is facing deficit because of higher expenses and less income. He said provincial government is incurring its electricity charges while federal government organisations do not clear its dues in time and as a result Rs 257,954 million were outstanding against them till December 2004. He said federal government was requested to deduct this amount from concerned departments at source but no decision had been taken in this regard so far.
Of this amount, he informed that Rs 203.967 million are outstanding against Defence, Rs 52.464 million against Pakistan Railways and Rs 01.524 million against other federal government organisations. Simi1arly, Dr Sarki informed that Rs 1,773.339 million of Karachi Water and Sewerage Board are outstanding against various federal government departments including Rs 1,551.539 million against Defence, Rs 198.962 million against Works, Rs 2.564 million against Finance, Rs 4.320 million against CBR, Rs 14.700 million against Science and Technology and Rs l.234 million against Communication department.
Speaking about CDL loans issue, the minister recalled that Sindh government launched Scarp projects in the province to control water logging and salinity through Wapda and their funds were described as cash development loans.
He said the federal government made direct payment to Wapda in this regard while Wapda did not inform Sindh government about details of expenses and recovered interest of 12 to 16 percent describing these expenses as cash development loans.
Dr Sarki told journalists that Sindh government paid Rs 25.422 billion on this count during the period from 1977-78 to 2003-04, out of which Rs 22. 521 billion or 86.5 percent were paid as mark-up while actual amount is Rs 2.902 billion. He said that according to figures of ministry of finance, Sindh government still has to pay Rs 16 billion.
He said the basic issue is that Sindh government was not informed about the actual amount of this cash development loan and no step was taken despite repeated reminders and, therefore, Sindh government will be constrained to make any further payment until it is informed about actual amount.
He said another issue that would be taken up is that the chief executive had in June 2004 announced Rs 50 million for setting up mines and mineral department in all the provinces. In Sindh this department was established on June 22, which opened offices at different locations and Sindh Coal Authority was also formed.
Dr Sarki said Sindh is implementing National Mineral Policy but it has not yet received Rs 50 million and no action was taken despite repeated reminders while other provinces had been paid this amount.
He said that all these issues will be taken up and discussed in the December 16 IPCC meeting to get them resolved. On the occasion Provincial Secretary IPC Mehtab Rashdi gave a detailed account of activities of Sindh IPC for the year 2007, which includes seminars on various topics and exchange of visits by journalists, students, scholars, educationists, parliamentarians etc.