ISLAMABAD: The federal government has agreed to clearly
bifurcate roles and powers of the Council of Common Interests (CCI) and
the federal forums like Energy and Economic Committees of the Cabinet
after the provinces surrendered their demand for re-opening of a series
of energy related decisions taken by the centre since 2013.
The
provinces have been criticising major decisions made by the Cabinet
Committee on Energy (CCoE) and the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC)
of the Cabinet under the PML-N government without provincial input.
They have been demanding re-opening of all ‘unilateral’ energy-related
decisions of the two forums.
The broad agreement was
reached at a recent meeting of the CCI presided over by Prime Minister
Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and attended by chief ministers of Sindh, Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan and the Punjab’s finance minister, a senior
official told Dawn.
“It was agreed that without reopening
the past decisions of the ECC, the Ministry of Energy would initiate a
summary on oil, gas and power sectors to delineate “day-to-day” and
“policy matters” of these sectors”, he quoted minutes of the CCI meeting
held on Nov 24.
Article 154 of the constitution
stipulates that CCI is the competent forum to formulate and regulate
policies in relation to matters in Part-II of the Federal Legislative
List.
In the CCI meeting, Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali
Shah protested that ECC and CCoE by taking up matters listed in Part-II
had been encroaching upon the domain of the CCI.
He
said his province was cognizant of the fact that the CCI was not
supposed to consider and decide day to day affairs related to oil and
gas but certain decisions taken by the ECC indicated that matters
submitted to it cannot be categorised as day to day affairs. “These
decisions have directly affected the financial interests of the
government of Sindh,” he was quoted as saying.
The
federal minister for law and justice contended that in pursuance of the
Supreme Court’s ruling, the ECC’s decisions were invariably ratified by
the federal cabinet and it was “difficult to re-open all the previous
decisions of ECC,” but the Sindh government could identify specific
decisions that could be considered in the context of CCI jurisdiction on
prospective basis.
The law minister believed the
constitutional provisions were very clear in this regard and ECC did not
appear to have transgressed the CCI domain.
The chief
minister finally agreed that “reopening of ECC’s past decisions was not
warranted but in future such issues may not be placed before the ECC for
any decision”.
The prime minister opined that day to
day affairs of oil, gas and electricity were submitted to the ECC and
the cabinet for consideration and those did not fall within the purview
of the CCI.
He advised that detailed discussions may be
held to sort out the issue of categorising and differentiating the
day-to-day affairs vis-à-vis the policy matters. This will be important
to decide as to what level the ECC and CCI should function.
Mr Abbasi asked the all the provinces to formulate their views on the subject and submit to the CCI for consideration.
The
governments of Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had repeatedly moved formal
summaries to the CCI to undo federal government’s decisions on oil and
gas claiming such decisions had allegedly encroached upon provincial
powers and rights, in violation of the constitution.
The
two provinces were particularly agitated by decisions of the CCoE and
ECC under the PML-N leadership regarding the allocation of new oil and
gas finds, pricing of natural gas and matters relating to liquefied
natural gas (LNG) and for not calling regular meetings of the CCI in
violation of the article 154 that required at least one meeting in 90
days.
Both provinces have argued that only the CCI had
the power to formulate and regulate policies on matters pertaining to
Part II of the Federal Legislative List and that they should supervise
and control related institutions.
Sindh had moved a case
under Article 154 of the constitution and demanded that all decisions
taken by the CCE or ECC regarding electricity, gas and LNG after the
18th Amendment should be “declared null and void” because the province
had not supported or had not been consulted at the constitutional forum.
The law ministry had ruled in its legal opinion that
LNG was not produced in any province or territorial waters adjacent
thereto as required under Article 172 (3) or in the Fourth Schedule of
the constitution. Being an imported product, its allocation or any other
matter had nothing to do with any province. “Even the Law Division has
consented in its legal opinion that matters relating to natural gas
should go to the CCI.”
The two provinces have reportedly
prepared their own gas allocation policies for upcoming gas fields by
prioritising industrial units, power generation and fertiliser plants,
residential areas and CNG stations, in that order.
The
two provinces have also raised objections over policy guidelines issued
by the ECC to two regulators – Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra)
and National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) – regarding gas
and electricity tariffs, saying that the two regulatory bodies
themselves fell in the provincial domain through CCI.
The
article 154 also requires that CCI decisions must be taken with an
expressed majority and a dissatisfied party could refer the matter to a
joint sitting of parliament for correction.
