The first time the notification to that effect was issued on 19th December 2016 and was opposed in the Senate dominated by the Pakistan People's Party as well as by the opposition-led Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces; and challenged in Islamabad, Peshawar and Lahore high courts. The direction of the court was that the federal government must first place the matter before the Council of Common Interests (CCI) 'pursuant to the powers conferred under Article 154 of the constitution' given that it 'unambiguously provided that the formulation and regulation of policies in relation to matters contained in part II of the Federal Legislative List fell exclusively within the ambit of the CCI'.
The Sharif administration has consistently shown its reluctance to meet the constitutional provision of a CCI meeting every three months though it baffles the mind as to why this is the case given that the composition of the CCI (chaired by the prime minister who nominates three federal ministers plus the four chief ministers) allows the federal government to have a majority with one Chief Minister with the majority opinion prevailing. In short, the government can easily bulldoze its opinion through in a CCI meeting though needless to add that is against the very spirit of the CCI. Be that as it may, a CCI meeting was held on 2nd May 2017; however, the representatives of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) and Sindh told Business Recorder that while the matter was discussed in that meeting yet they had opposed the proposal. But in this context, it is surprising and unnecessary for the federal government to maintain in the CCI minutes that there was a consensus, as claimed by the KPK representative, while it could have simply noted the fact that the majority opinion was to issue the second notification.
A regulatory body by definition is an entity whose existence is justified on the grounds that expertise is required for the challenging task of undertaking regulatory and supervisory tasks and to guard against political interference which maybe detrimental to public interest. During the third tenure of the Sharif administration, frequent reports appearing in the media gleaned from public hearings as well as from whistle blowers have consistently revealed that tariff recommendations with respect to electricity and gas charges have been shot down by the two regulators notably Nepra and Ogra as they are deemed to be against public interest, much to the chagrin of the line ministries notably Water and Power and Petroleum ministries.
International donor agencies, including the World Bank, have expressed serious concerns at these notifications and have urged the government to keep the regulatory bodies autonomous; however, the relevant ministers are dismissing these concerns by stating that the notification would bring about little change and that henceforth instead of dealing with the Cabinet Division they would deal with the line ministry. It would be unfortunate if these autonomous entities are shackled by the line ministries as is feared.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2017