Pakistan to challenge UN
decision in world court
ISLAMABAD:
Pakistan has decided to challenge in the international court
of arbitration a decision of the UN Framework Convention on
Climate Change (UNFCCC) to grant carbon credits to India on
a controversial hydropower project without mandatory
clearance of its trans-boundary environmental impact
assessment.
Simultaneously, the water and power ministry has sought the
opinion from the establishment division if Pakistan’s former
commissioner for Indus Waters (PCIW) could be proceeded
against after his retirement for not vigorously pursuing
cases to stop India from construction of the controversial
project and getting carbon credits from the UN forum, a
senior official told Dawn on Sunday.
Earlier, the law ministry had informed the establishment
division and the water and power ministry that a former
retired government official could only be proceeded against
if his actions were found to be of criminal nature. The
water and power ministry has now asked the establishment
division to determine the nature of the case so that
proceedings could be initiated if these were of criminal
nature.
The government has stopped the payment of retirement
benefits to Syed Jamaat Ali Shah, the former PCIW, pending
an inquiry. An official said the pension and retirement
benefits were now being released to the former official who
had served as the PCIW for 18 years.
Officials said an enquiry conducted by Mohammad Imtiaz
Tajwar, secretary of Wapda, as inquiry officer appointed by
the ministry of water and power, confirmed a Dawn report of
July 2010 that India had secured carbon credits for the
controversial 45-MW Nimoo-Bazgo hydropower project from the
UN agency without mandatory clearance from Pakistan. It was,
however, strange how India could secure carbon credits when
Pakistan had not seen, let alone clear, the cross-boundary
environmental impact assessment report.
Therefore, Pakistan has now decided to challenge the UNFCC’s
decision in the international court of arbitration because
legal requirements were allegedly not fulfilled by the UN
agency. These officials said either the Indian government
misled the UN agency through fake and fictitious documents
that might have shown Pakistan’s consent to the project
because there was no such record available in Pakistan.
India applied for carbon credits for the project which was a
“long-term process and must have spread over 4-5 years”, the
inquiry officer wrote.
“It is still not established how India was able to get
carbon credit benefits for the Nimoo-Bazgo project which is
located on trans-boundary water and for which ratification
of the parties concerned should have been procured before
hand by it under clause 37(b) of UNFCC. Although it is too
difficult to get carbon credits on a trans-boundary project
such as Nimoo-Bazgo, due to lack of contest by PCIW, India
was able to get carbon credits on this project,” he said.
The inquiry report available with Dawn suggests the former
PCIW insisted that the matter relating to the carbon credits
or environmental impact “was not covered under the Indus
Waters Treaty 1960, therefore, the issue can be taken up
with India by the ministry of environment”.
He is reported to have told the enquiry officer that he had
been vigorously pursuing with his Indian counterpart
Pakistan’s technical and engineering related objections and
reporting its feedback to the government of Pakistan. The
issue was discussed several times at various forums of the
government without a major decision being taken to take the
matter to the international court of arbitration.
The inquiry officer held that information about the project
was received in Pakistan in 2002 and Pakistan’s PCIW had
repeatedly sought information from his Indian counterpart
and its inclusion in the agenda items, but it took several
years till 2009 when the project was finally taken up by the
Permanent Indus Commission (PIC) because India kept on
dodging Islamabad through stereotype responses and delaying
tactics. “These letters indicate that PCIW was in the
knowledge of the issue and could have approached authorities
to approach the court of arbitration/neutral expert at that
stage, however, that initiative was not availed and
opportunity was missed (sic).”
In December 2010, the ministry of foreign affairs said there
were enough credible ground to refer the project to a
neutral expert or court of arbitration, but it was obvious
that the project was at the stage of fait-accompli, not due
to the India’s design but careless attitude from Pakistan
side and it was difficult to get a favourable outcome from
the arbitration. It remained, however, unclear why
ministries of law, foreign affairs and other related
institutions failed to know about the Indian success at the
UNFCC during 4-5 years of carbon credit approval process.
The inquiry officer, while suggesting strengthening of the
PCIW office, concluded that it was astonishing that
“disputes/differences on design/carbon credit benefits were
handled in a casual manner” when the media and intelligence
reports were carrying sufficient information to raise
objection with India.
Attempts to contact Mr Jamaat Ali Shah, the former PCIW,
could not materialise as informed sources said he had
already travelled abroad to spend time with his family in
Canada.
Officials said the issue was of an institutional lapse in
raising objections over India’s aggression on the country’s
water rights and securing international carbon credits on
hydropower projects disputed by Pakistan and could not be
shelved after completion of an inquiry against an
individual.
They said the ministry of water and power had said it was
not responsible for the lapse because it was the job of the
Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency to conduct an
environmental impact assessment. The ministry said it had no
role in ratification of trans-boundary impact assessments,
whose documents had not been shared with it.
On the other hand, the environment ministry washed its hand
of the matter, too. It said that since the Indian projects
were of a strategic nature, it could not have intervened
unless its attention had been drawn to the issue and
professional advice sought.
The project was approved by the UNFCCC in August 2008 and
India had applied for it in March 2006.
Courtesy: The NATION