CCI meeting to be held on Dec 11 cancelled

ISLAMABAD: The Council of Common Interest (CCI) meeting scheduled for December 11, was on Saturday cancelled owing to excess agenda shared from the Sindh province, ARY NEWS reported.

The CCI meeting was to be held on 11 December with Prime Minister Imran Khan in the chair, with provincial chief ministers and others also in the attendance.

However, sources privy to the development said that the Sindh province asked the prime minister to include more items in the meeting’s agenda.

“The meeting earlier had to mull over 10-point agenda,” they said.

The sources said that the excess agenda would require more time to prepare for it, therefore the scheduled meeting of the CCI was cancelled. “New dates for the rescheduled meeting will also be announced later,” they said.

On November 28, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah reviewed preparations for an upcoming meeting of the Council of Common Interests (CCI) slated to take place on December 11.

The chief minister reviewed the agenda and directed the inter-provincial coordination (IPC) department to make necessary preparations by arranging all the relevant summaries so that he could present the provincial government’s point of view on all the important issues, including 1991 water accord, energy policy, return of withholding tax the FBR deducted directly from provincial excise department account and other such matters.

The IRSA has issued an NOC for installation of 25 megawatt Hydropower project on Chashma-Jhelum Link Canal in October 2019, he said., adding the provincial government is of the view that the IRSA was not a competent forum to issue such an NOC, therefore the matter should be taken up in CCI.

The chief minister directed the Irrigation department to prepare a case and present it within a week.

The Sindh government has been protesting the IRSA move, terming it unconstitutional and beyond the authority’s mandate.