It is the same report he had submitted to the Prime Minister sometime in September last year as "interim report", and remains so. To what extent it can help resolve the controversy over the Kalabagh dam probably is anybody's guess. For one thing is sure: the opposition in the Senate did not touch it even with a pair of tongs, asserting the committee that authored the report had no constitutional status and that the "impartiality" of the committee chairman, Nisar Memon, is questionable.
As soon as Nisar Memon presented the report, the opposition leader asked: "If this is the interim report will you present the final after the dam is completed?" But, importantly, he added, the National Assembly speaker had neither the jurisdiction to co-opt members of the upper house in the committee, nor it could be declared a joint committee of the two houses by a mere resolution.
Given the nature of issue, only the Council of Common Interest can recommend constitution of such a committee. And, then came Raza Rabbani's blow below the belt: Nisar Memon has forfeited his credibility by subverting the defence committee's verdict against purchase of VVIP aircraft. However, leader of the house, Wasim Sajjad, contested the opposition leader's stance, reasoning the Senate being a sovereign entity its decisions cannot be circumvented by its rules.
But the matter did not end there because Naeem Hussain Chattha, the treasury member who was also a member of the defence committee, refuted the opposition's story. Farhatullah Babar, another member of the defence committee, now got the mike to tell the house that was the Prime Minister house had ordered the purchase of the VVIP aircraft in the absence of any technical advice. So what, countered Kamil Ali Agha to be supported by state minister for law Shahid Bhinder that the "purchase of aircraft is an executive decision.
The committee has no jurisdiction". Nisar Memon, feeling he is being made the butt for all the ridicule, burst into a torrent of emotions: he didn't care what members say on the VVIP aircraft purchase issue, insisting he would only talk about the water report.
Spelling out salient features of the report, he said in the committee's meeting of July 20, 2004, the 1991 water accord was declared "sacrosanct", which should be implemented in toto "without any reference to 1994 ministerial decisions and that "large dams need to be built "but with consensus".
But there were "major gaps" among provinces, conceded the report, adding there was consensus on Basha dam but the Punjab wanted that Basha and Kalabagh be constructed simultaneously.
Syed S.M. Zafar was the first speaker of the day when the chair allowed regular debate on the construction of large water dams. The government is confronted with the Hobson's Choice: If you do it you are damned and if you don't you are damned". What we have today is the difference of opinion on the location of dam, that is essentially a technical issue which, he said, can be resolved only by strengthening the Constitution.
The Punjab-Sindh differences on distribution of water is more than a century old, but luckily we have today with us the 1991 water accord which is acceptable to all contending parties. Way forward should be given constitutional protection to 1991 accord; announcement of an interim NFC award, and a meeting of the Council of Common Interest without further loss of time.
The next speaker, Professor Khurshid Ahmad, was equally cogent in his presentation on the dam issue. Zeroing in on President Musharraf's recent statements, he said: "If you made-up your mind already there is no point in seeking consensus." Studies oppose construction of mega dams and, as an alternative, Pakistan has a number of locations for small dams, which provinces should be allowed to build, he said, adding let the dam issue be discussed at the forum of CCI.