CONSECRATED in the Constitution of Pakistan is the edict decreeing payment of ‘net-hydel profits’ to the provinces according to a formula as simple as ‘Newton’s first law of motion’. Disdainfully, the constitutional decree is diffused in two ways; firstly, by grounding the computation of ‘net-hydel profits’ in a flawed legal theory, and secondly, by impeding the implementation of even this faulty alternative.

Article 161 (2) of the Constitution proclaims: “The net profits earned by the federal government, or any undertaking established or administered by the federal government from the bulk generation of power at a hydroelectric station shall be paid to the province in which the hydroelectric station is situated.”

The framers of the 1973 Constitution, predicting a potential quagmire over the calculations of ‘net-hydel profits’, and in an effort to quell it, purposefully inserted an ‘explanation’ in Article 161. It declaims: “For the purposes of this clause ‘net profits’ shall be computed by deducting from the revenues accruing from the bulk supply of power from the bus-bars of a hydroelectric station at a rate to be determined by the Council of Common Interests [CCI], the operating expenses of the........

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