PESHAWAR: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Senator Farhatullah Babar said on Wednesday that a systematic encroachment on powers is taking place at three levels in the country and called for measures to reverse the trend.
The un-elected establishment is seeking to take over the functions of the elected government. And within the elected structures the federation is encroaching upon the domain of provinces which in turn are reluctant to give powers to local governments in accordance with the Constitution, he said at the seminar on devolution organised by the senate committee in a hotel in Peshawar today
About the encroachment of powers by the un-elected establishment the less said the better, he said. The issue of state institutions working within their limits has been thoroughly discussed recently in the senate and the chairman senate reserved his ruling which is expected to be announced in the forthcoming senate session.
Nowhere is this encroachment within elected structures so obvious as in the resistance to devolution in petroleum sector and placing regulatory bodies under line ministries instead of CCI and making the conflict resolution body Council of Common Interest almost redundant, he said.
He said that Article 172 (3) clearly lays down that mineral oil and natural gas within the Province or the territorial waters adjacent thereto shall vest jointly and equally in that Province and the federal government.
But the Senate was shocked last month when moves came to surface that the federal government planned to set up a Petroleum Exploration and Production Regulatory Authority to solely grant the lucrative petroleum rights and upstream activities in the country with no role for provinces.
But for the Senate’ timely and powerful intervention the federal government would have got away with robbing the provinces of their rights in petroleum sector.
He said that as a result of refusal of constitutional right of the provinces not a single block has been offered to bidding since 2014 out of 35 pending blocks.
The leases awarded before 2012 have also expired and not renewed causing a loss of billions to both federal and provincial KPK governments in royalty.
He said that the provinces should have their own regulatory authorities for concession management in accordance with the Constitution 18th amendment. The proposed regulatory authority should only regulate pricing and concession management of offshore, FATA, Azad Kashmir, and Gilgit-Baltistan. Furthermore the chairman of this body should be appointed on rotation from federation and all four provinces, he said.
He said that federal government had neither awarded exploration contracts nor allowed provinces to do so during the last five years and asked Why?
Is it because that some powerful lobbies and vested interests are deliberately withholding development of petroleum sector to allow for imports of LNG and called for thorough investigations in the matter
He said that the 2012 Petroleum policy also states that the policy will be revisited after five years and asked why it had not been done so far.
He said provinces should also look inwardly and devolve powers genuinely to local governments to create a strong moral base for demanding their rights from federation. The smaller provinces should also join hands in requisitioning meetings of CCI in case the federation was reluctant to do so.
Published in Daily Times, January 12th 2018.
