India not responsible for water shortage in Pakistan, says Chairman Irsa

In a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Water and Power chaired by Senator Iqbal Zafar Jhagra that was held in Islamabad on Thursday, he said India was using less than its allocated share under the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) signed between the two countries.

IWT is a water-sharing treaty between India and Pakistan, brokered by the World Bank (then the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development). The treaty was signed in Karachi on September 19, 1960 by Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and President of Pakistan Ayub Khan.

He claimed that media reports that India is not observing IWT are baseless by saying that India are getting less compared to their allocated share of water.

The committee also decided to conduct a performance audit of K-Electric through Auditor General of Pakistan aimed at judging the performance of the power utility.

The proposal of conducting the performance audit of K-Electric was put forward by PPP’s Senator Taj Haider. He sugested that Chairman Standing Committee should write a letter to Auditor General of Pakistan to conduct a performance audit of the power utility as the company resists sharing its data with the auditors. None of the committee members and officials of Water and Power Ministry oppose the proposal.

Speaking on the issue, Minister of State for Water and Power, Abid Sher Ali told the committee that the agreement between the National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) and management of K-Electric (former KESC) was to receive 650 MW electricity from the national grid but on occasions K-Electric allegedly extracted up to 950 MW from the system and did not switch on its own generators.

Abid Sher Ali also informed that Nepra has issued a legal notice to K-Electric on the current state of affairs and will probe thoroughly.