Khawaja Zaheer Ahmed - PDMA

Finance Ministry) were invited to depose and assist with due regard to thirteen
formulations listed in Para 1 supra. Additionally, presentations were also made
by officials at the sites of breached bunds during 6 days field visits to four
provinces. A gist of their formal positions submitted to the Commission in its
sittings at Islamabad, as further reinforced by general submissions and
documents sought by it is summarized below, not necessarily in the sequence of
presentations /appearances:-
a. Mr. Asjad Imtiaz, the then Acting Chairman FFC apprised about the
FFC’s role as coordinator that undertakes liaison with various
agencies for technical assistance and securing federal funds while
execution of schemes was left to the Provinces. According to him,
the FFC primarily acted as an inter-Provincial clearing-house for
processing approvals, examining technical soundness of flood
related schemes as one-window lobby for federal funding whereas
schemes are executed by the Provinces / Territorial
administrations. It was given out that 6,803 Km of bunds
/embankments and 1,410 spurs were being maintained by the
provinces of which 332 Km are in the Punjab, 2,422 Km in Sindh,
352 Km in KP and 697 Km in Balochistan. It was claimed that
FFC’s role was limited to concept clearance and technical appraisal
of flood protection works in the national context and as facilitator of
federal allocations by the Planning Commission. While the FFC
saw its functions as advisory in nature, it assisted and steered
formulation of three 10-year programs executed with an overall
investment of Rs.26,138 million since 1978 to June 2010 for
various flood protection and drainage programmes in the
Provinces. Out of this Rs.891.2 million were expended during ADP
2008-09 and 2009-10; Rs.62.98 million was used during ADP 2010-
11 against Rs.703.76 allocated for the purpose. The lowest
releases were noted during 2009-10 when against annual average
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