Ok, let me fetch my crayons and draw a picture for those who are unfamiliar with this flow thing. I'll stick to individual points to make it easier.
1. Muscat ACC gets exceptionally busy during the EK/EY/QR departure rush to the east every night. Couple that with the fact that they share an FIR boundary with Mumbai (procedural), crappy equipment and lack of staff and things get messy.
2. For Muscat to regulate EK/EY/QR departure times involves diplomatic channels because three different sovereign states are involved.
3. Muscat takes the easiest option and regulate flow through TARDI/LABRI (deemed a common point) and LALDO by issuing a NOTAM regulating the flow through these points.
3. These points are on the FIR boundary between UAE and MCT FIRs. This automatically makes it the UAE ACC's problem, even though they don't have a dog in this fight.
4. To put "hold for release" on all DB/AA departures through these points and release them one-by-one to meet the Muscat flow requirements, will create in infinite amount of extra work and suck up manpower.
5. UAE ACC therefor created a flow system by which the respective towers call the ACC to obtain a departure slot for each acft that is regulated by the MCT NOTAM. They also wrote a small computer program to assist the ATCAs in doing this. Note ATCAs because the ATCOs, or supervisor, has neither the time nor the inclination to man this flow system.
6. Because of the nature of EK/EY business models they all want to depart at the same time. Exactly what the MCT NOTAM tries to curtail. The respective towers now feel aggrieved because the other tower is stealing its slots and start to devise cunning little plans to usurp one another.
7. In the middle of this sits the UAE ACC (still without a dog) and gets the flak from MCT, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, EK/EY et al because things are not flowing according to plan. Excuse the pun.
That about sums it up as short as I can make it.
Apologies for the VLP.