Editorial: Outstanding dues of Sui Gas

The Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raqza Gillani had recently made a one-day visit to Peshawar and held meetings with the Governor, Chief Minister and his Cabinet colleagues and discussed various issues of regional and national importance by taking the local leadership into full confidence on government policies. One of the outstanding problems was resolving the issue of hydel net profit for North Western Frontier Province (NWFP) as was admissible following a verdict that the federal government should pay Rs 110 billion to NWFP as net profit from hydel power. It was a good decision and the government implemented it the other day.

Earlier, the government had filed appeals against the verdict. Following meetings, the Prime Minister agreed to pay the entire amount and ordered immediate release of Rs 10 billion to the NWFP government. Islamabad will pay another installment of Rs 25 billions later on. In other words, the issue was resolved before the National Finance Commission (NFC) Award which is a good omen for the people at this critical juncture when the Taliban had made NWFP the main target of terror and devastation.

Balochistan too had a problem with the federal government. Primarily, the federal government had fixed the wellhead prices of natural gas in 1954 and was reluctant to bring it at par with the other provinces for many decades. It was unjust and discriminatory to the people of Balochistan, to say the least. Now, the government had agreed to bring the wellhead prices of natural gas at par with the other provinces significantly increasing the revenue of Balochistan. It is a fact that the Sui Gas was used as an energy substitute of imported oil. If the Sui Gas was not available to the national economy then the central government would have to import oil worth over two billion dollars annually to meet the energy demand. In other words, the government had a saving of over 110 billion US dollars for using Sui Gas as a substitute for imported oil for over 55 years.

The complaint of the people and the political leaders from Balochistan was genuine as the province never received a fair price of its Sui Gas. Secondly, it was burnt and destroyed instead of being used as raw material to generate electricity, produce urea and other finished products. It was simply burnt and used to heat homes or cook food and not brought under more productive use as raw material. Besides that, Balochistan never received a fair price and all the gas companies involved in production, transmission and distribution of gas were involved in tampering data misinforming the government and people of Balochistan to the disadvantage of the most backward province of Balochistan.

The Gas Development Surcharge (GDS) was made admissible in the NFC Award of 1991 following massive protest and agitation by Shaheed Nawab Akbar Bugti. Mian Nawaz Sharif, the then Prime Minister, was unnerved over the agitation on gas prices. Earlier, the Royalty on Sui Gas was made admissible only after late Mir Ghous Bakhsh Bizenjo, a former Baloch governor, had agitated inside and outside the parliament before the constitution making in 1973. Both the demands were conceded after agitation. Now the Government wants that the nationalist political parties and the people should also agitate for the demand to get back the outstanding dues of 110 billion US dollars on account of Sui Gas from the government and its contribution to national economy is much bigger.

Some elements are demanding the Gas Development Surcharge should have been made admissible since the Natural Gas was found at Sui in Bugti tribal territory in 1952. We hope that members of the National Assembly and Senate of Pakistan in the federal Parliament will take up the issue on the floor of both the houses while other political parties and student organizations and the civil society would agitate on the roads to put full pressure on the federal government to pay the outstanding dues to Balochistan on Sui Gas since it was discovered in 1952.

The ruling party should take up the issue with the central leadership in Islamabad to register and accepting this just demand as Balochistan was not treated fairly and justly during the past 62 years. There are no signs that it will be treated fairly and justly in near future, if we are to take the past 20 months of the current government as an indicator.