Faux pas in CCI
A ‘strong centre’ mindset incompatible with federal polity revealed itself in the way the energy policy was prepared and the CCI meeting was convened. While Mian Shahbaz Sharif was included in the team which gave final touches to the document, no need was felt to associate representatives of the other three provinces. The document was then put before the CCI for signatures. The idea was that the document being a piece of unquestionable wisdom, every sensible person was bound to agree with it. This did not come to pass, and the fault lies with the ‘strong centre’ outlook. It was disregarded that every province has peculiarities of its own and that in a federation one size seldom fits all. The least the government should have done was to circulate a copy of the energy policy document to enable the provincial ministers to read it, seek the advice of experts and party leaders and come prepared to the CCI meeting. Among other things this would have saved the precious time of the participants, particularly the prime minister who has to look after the foreign affairs and defence ministries besides performing his responsibilities as the country’s chief executive. As this was not done, when the participants arrived for the meeting they had read only the sketchy media reports, as most dispatches had ignored some of the key recommendations.
A day earlier three provinces had opposed the idea of deducting the cost of electricity consumed in their domain at source from the National Finance Commission (NFC) award allocations. Punjab was in the forefront of those who dissented with the Supreme Court recommendation. Punjab’s acting advocate general has argued that the province was receiving Rs500 billion through the NFC and if Rs420bn was deducted in advance, little would be left for other expenses. At the CCI meeting again majority of the provinces did not agree to take responsibility for 70 per cent recovery of electricity bills or agree to the deduction of the defaulted money from their share in the federal divisible pool. Why should they share the burden of WAPDA’s mismanagement which was under the federal control? The KP government felt that at a time when the provincial police was fully engaged in fighting the militants, it was not feasible for it to apprehend and prosecute the gas and power defaulters. The Sindh CM argued that the slab of subsidy for 200 units per month needed to be raised to 300.
There were reportedly six items on the CCI agenda out of which only two could be taken up in the meeting which was spread over two hours. Hopefully the participants would come better prepared in the next meeting. What is needed on the part of the federal government is flexibility that alone can ensure consensus.
