The caretaker Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has formally appealed the federal government to immediately release the outstanding payment of Rs62 billion net hydroelectricity profits to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and urged to increase the rate of profit. In a letter to federal government, Chief Minister Mohammad Azam Khan asked Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to act on Article 161(2) of the Constitution, which speaks out that the net profit from the bulk generation of power at a hydro-electric station shall be paid to the province in which the hydro-electric station is situated.
The letter stated that the Constitution provides for the payment of NHP to the provinces at the rate determined by the Council of Common Interest (CCI). According to its reference, the Kazi Committee Methodology (KCM) was approved by the CCI in Jan 1991, while the first payment of Rs6 billion was given to KP (then North Western Frontier Province) next year.
The KCM was endorsed by the National Finance Commission and the Supreme Court of Pakistan. It was subsequently approve by the CCI in 1991, 1993, 1997, 1998, 2016, 2018 and 2019, the CM mentioned in the letter. He said that in 2016, the federal government, realizing KP was in dire straits and on the instruction of the then prime minister Nawaz Sharif, announced an interim NHP agreement brokered by then finance Minister Ishaq Dar.—INP
