ISLAMABAD: In a swift turn of events, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday withdrew his unilateral directive appoi­nting a “super chairman” for the Indus River System Authority (Irsa) in the wake of the backlash, particularly from his major political partner PPP that rules Sindh.

“The orders of the prime minister … for the appointment of Mr Zafar Mahmood, a retired BS-22 federal government officer, as chairman Irsa, may be treated as withdrawn,” prime minister’s secretary Asad Rehman Gilani communicated to the establishment and water resources divisions, just a day after he issued orders for Mr Mahmood’s appointment as the head of water regulator Irsa.

Sources said Prime Minister Sharif had called for an assessment of the background as to how the caretaker government issued a controversial ordinance despite the opposition of then-president Dr Arif Alvi, and subsequently, a detailed summary was placed before the elected prime minister for approval as if a pending “routine affair”. The order said that “further necessary action shall be taken accordingly”.

Sources said Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah called Prime Minister Sharif and conveyed his province’s concerns over the drastic step without consultations at the relevant constitutional forums.

The prime minister reportedly assured Mr Shah that the appointment would be revoked in favour of maintaining the existing regulatory arrangement, as established by the 1992 act of parliament following the 1991 water apportionment accord.

Senior parliamentarian Syed Naveed Qamar on Wednesday flayed the decision on the floor of the National Assembly, describing it as unilateral, illegal and unconstitutional and demanding its immediate withdrawal.

The sources said some influential officers had operated very smartly and played through the process for drastic changes in Irsa’s regulatory structure but was based on such weak legal and constitutional grounds that an executive order was sufficient to ground it.

Earlier, the Irsa Act of 1992 was discretely amended through an ordinance without the president’s approval. The Irsa Amendment Ordinance, 2024, purportedly issued and printed in the second week of February, was kept under the carpet until a summary to the prime minister was moved for approval in the second week of March.

A water resources ministry official said the ministry did not see the summary for the appointment of the new chairman until March 13, a day after the prime minister issued orders.

Mr Mahmood’s induction was made under the controversial Irsa Amendment Ordinance 2024, which Mr Alvi returned with reservations to the then-caretaker premier, Anwaarul Haq Kakar.

The ordinance did not go back to the Presidency, and Article 48 of the Constitution was used to provide for the prime minister to resend the draft. The impugned ordinance, however, said the president “required the prime minister after such reconsideration reiterated his earlier advice advising the president to make and promulgate the said ordinance… therefore, the ordinance deemed to have been promulgated on the 14th day of February”.

The impugned ordinance and the subsequent order of the premier had virtually created the position of a “super chairman” of Irsa while demoting the existing rotational chairman (currently Abdul Hameed Mengal from Balochistan) as vice chairman, as the new structure apparently compromised the independent status of the water regulator created with provinces’ consensus under the 1991 water accord.

The 2024 ordinance apparently neutralised the powers of the incumbent Irsa chairman and was processed without the mandatory consideration of the Council of Common Interests (CCI).

Published in Dawn, March 15th, 2024