Sindh province has urged the federal government to ensure implementation of the Article 158 of the Constitution in letter and spirit and share census data with the provinces. 

The Article 158 provides that the province from where natural gas is discovered will have precedence over other parts of Pakistan in meeting the requirements from that well-head.

Talking to media after the meeting, Chief Minister Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah stated that though there was no agenda item of his province for IPCC meeting, members reviewed the decisions of the last IPCC meeting held on September 7, 2017.

Shah stated that chairman of the IPC Committee Riaz Pirzada as well as other members agreed to his viewpoint for implementation of Article 158 of the Constitution in letter and spirit.

He said he also raised the issue of census and asked that census data should be provided immediately so that if anybody has any objection on it, he should raise it. He said that it has been decided that LNG policy issue would be discussed in the Council of Common Interests (CCI).

An official of IPCC stated that Chief Ministers of Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa attended the meeting. The meeting discussed financial claim of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) against Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) with respect to cross-adjustment of sales tax.

The IPCC discussed implementation of Kazi Committee's Methodology (KCM) for calculation of net hydel profit, signing of power purchase agreement (PPA) for Pehur Hydro Power Project by the CPPA-G and payment of arrears on account of electricity sold to PESCO and would assess the real time production data of oil and gas from the well heads and natural gas consumption in KP, access to real time electricity production in the country, usage by distribution companies (DISCO), duration of load-shedding on feeders of Khyber Pakh-tunkhwa, and at source deduction/adjustment of electricity duty by PESCO against electricity dues of provincial government departments.

-Business Recorder