ISLAMABAD, March 11: The ANG Abbasi-led technical committee on water resources on Thursday sought four separate 'position papers' on total water availability and requirements to start its formal deliberations for consensus building on large dams.

The first regular meeting of the technical committee was held here on Thursday which was of introductory nature. The formal notification and terms of reference of the committee were issued only last month - six months after President General Musharraf set up the committee in August 2003.

Presided over by Mr ANG Abbasi, the meeting was attended by all the seven members except Eng. Shamsul Mulk who could not turn up because he was attending the meeting of Pakistan Engineering Council.

Mr Abbasi told Dawn after the meeting that the four co-opted members i.e. heads of Indus River System Authority (Irsa), Wapda, Chief Engineering Organization and the Planning Commission have been asked to submit position papers in two weeks' time "so as to move forward."

He said all the members had full knowledge of the water issues and had all the data with them but it was considered important to have all this data come through official channels.

He said the co-opted members were asked to also provide relevant documents, past data, present situation besides the position papers covering all the aspects of the TORs.

Mr Abbasi said that the committee had been given one year to complete its deliberations but if everything went smoothly, it could finalize its report even earlier.

The government notified last month the modified terms of reference (TORs) on a 'give-and-take' basis to activate the technical committee on the contentious water issue. The question relating to water requirement downstream Kotri has been excluded from the jurisdiction of the Abbasi committee.

On the other hand, a major demand of Mr Abbasi that called for the assessment of overall water availability to ascertain the viability of a new reservoir has been accepted and included in the TORs by the government.

As such, the committee would have the powers to ascertain, based on facts and figures, whether there was enough surplus water available for the construction of a big reservoir like Bhasha dam or Kalabagh dam at all.

President General Pervez Musharraf had announced the constitution of two committees - one parliamentary and the other technical - on water resources in August last year for developing consensus on the construction of big reservoirs. The parliamentary committee has so far held more than five meetings.