Secretary Information Pakistan Peoples Party and ex-member National Finance Commission, Taj Haider, commenting on the appointment of a tribunal on the question of computing hydel-profits for NWFP has said that it was yet another ploy of the Federal Government to bypass and further postpone the payment of due hydel-profits to NWFP.
Hydel-profits to provinces where hydro-electric generation projects are located have been sanctioned under the Constitution [Article 161 (2)] as direct transfers. A detailed explanation following this article which gives the guidelines to calculate these profits is also an integral part of the Constitution. It should also be remembered that this is one of those constitutional provisions that made the unanimous signing of the 1973 Constitution possible.
Taj Haider reminded that in the late eighties the Federal Government had set up a committee to determine this question. The Committee with the assistance of reputed foreign consultants had come up with a formula to calculate hydel-profits according to the constitutional guidelines.
This formula was accepted by all the parties to the dispute. The political sub-committee of the National Finance Commission formed in 1995 had found this formula in order and the joint agreement signed by the four provinces represented on this sub-committee had recommended that hydel-profits must be calculated and paid according to this agreed formula.
Unfortunately, the profits have all along been arbitrarily determined by the Federal government. Currently, the province of NWFP is losing 12 billion rupees every year on account of this arbitrary determination of hydel-profits. The Federal government has started treating this amount of constitutional direct transfers more or less as a "grant in aid" made by them. The obvious purpose is to contain the federal deficits by depriving the provinces of their rightful amounts.
In blatant violation of the 1991 Water Accord between the provinces which had enjoined that "the existing reservoirs would be operated with priority for the irrigation uses of the provinces" [clause 14(c)], these are being operated with priority to generate maximum electricity for Wapda.
The required and indented down flows of the lower riparian are unconstitutionally being blocked to maintain high water levels in the reservoirs. According to published figures hydro-electric energy generation has increased during the years of water shortage, which should have been the other way round. Thus while on the one hand lower riparian are being denied their due share of water, on the other NWFP is being denied its constitutional amounts of hydel-profits.
Taj Haider said that the military government had made it its routine practice to reopen settled issues to its own short-term benefit. The provisions of sharing shortages of water outlined in the Water Accord had been unconstitutionally twisted in such a way that the majority province gets more water in times of shortage than it would get if there was no shortage of water.
The NFC award is due for the last 3 years and now the dictatorship has assumed to itself the functions and the authority of the NFC. Now a tribunal has been set-up to reopen the settled issue of hydel-profits to the NWFP. This is how dictatorships have historically encouraged conflict and created new grounds for the fragmentation of the nation.
Taj Haider said that no NFC award is needed for paying due hydle-profits to NWFP as direct transfers. It is most surprising to note that the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) government in NWFP had also become a party to the reopening of this settled issue by agreeing to the setting up of a fresh tribunal.
He demanded that the province should be paid its constitutional dues calculated according to the already agreed formula without any delay especially at the present time when they are badly in need of resources because of the earthquake havoc.