HYDERABAD: Memon assures fair water distribution
HYDERABAD, Dec 5: The Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Water Resources, Senator Nisar A. Memon, has said that the committee in its report has made recommendations to ensure that no injustice is done to any province in water distribution.
Mr Memon, who is additional secretary-general of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League, was talking to journalists at a reception hosted by the youth wing of the party at the Mehran Arts Council here on Sunday.
He avoided disclosing contents of the report and said: "I had submitted the report to parliament some months ago; now it is confidential and its contents cannot be disclosed". He added that it would be a violation of the parliament's rules of business and could lead to a privilege motion.
Nonetheless, he clarified that the report called for ensuring that each province received its due share of water. He said that the technical committee on the issue, formed by President Gen Pervez Musharraf and headed by A.G.N.Abbasi, would finalise its findings by February and submit it to the president.
The senator asserted that water distribution and the National Finance Commission award were on top of the president's agenda. About the Kashmir issue, Mr Memon, who is also chairman of the standing committee of the Senate on information and broadcasting, said that it was due to efforts made by the president that the issue had been globalized.
He said that the president had emerged as the leader and spokesman of the Muslim Ummah, which was an honour for Pakistan, adding that even the US President had asked President Musharraf to mediate on the Palestine issue.
Talking about local bodies' polls, he said that personally he was in favour of the elections on party basis because political parties played their role even in non-party elections.
The provinces had given their opinion in this regard, and were awaiting a final decision by the centre, he added. Earlier, speaking at the reception, he said that the centenary of the PML would be celebrated in a befitting manner in 2006, preceding general elections scheduled to be held the following year.
He said that the PML's organizational set-up in the district was being finalized by the party's Sindh president. The party's additional secretary-general Iqbal Dar, president of labour wing Faqir Hussain Bukhari, provincial president of youth wing Haleem Adil Shaikh and others also spoke on the occasion.
PPI ADDS: Senator Memon told journalists that he was in favour of small dams and had asked for funds to be put aside for the purpose. He insisted that Punjab had neither deprived any province of its due share of water nor committed any injustice against other provinces.