Controversial project: Petition seeking construction of Kalabagh Dam filed

APML leader requests PHC to order initiation of project as it will generate electricity

PESHAWAR: The issue of the proposed construction of Kalabagh Dam which has remained controversial for many years has reached the Peshawar High Court. A constitutional petition has been filed in the court seeking directives to be issued to the government to start work on the dam and complete it within its stipulated time.

Nadir Khan, a leader of All Pakistan Muslim League (APML) in Charsadda who contested the 2013 general elections from NA-7, filed the petition in the high court on Wednesday. He has made the Federation of Pakistan; secretary of interior ministry; chief secretaries of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan; the chairman and general manager of WAPDA as well as the Ministry of Water and Power respondents through its secretary.

In his petition, the political leader says he had moved an application to the chief justice of PHC upon which he was directed to file a writ petition. The project was initially approved by the World Bank in 1984, and its cost was estimated at $8 billion.

The petition states that according to experts, Kalabagh Dam will store 8 million acre-feet of water. The country is facing a serious shortage of electricity and through this project Pakistan will be able to produce 3,600 megawatts of electricity. “By producing such a large quantity of low-cost electricity, we will be able to earn $1.6 billion annually,” it reads.

“The expenditure of Kalabagh Dam is $8 billion which will be recovered in the next five years. Pakistan’s income through this dam will increase up to 15% as per survey reports,” the petition states.

It goes on to add that experts in the field have said the dam will irrigate millions of acres of cultivable land in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

Making further grounds, the political leader says he and his co-villagers are facing electricity shortage in the ongoing summer season. “It is the verdict of the Supreme Court that when some relief is given to any class, the same shall be extended to other class.”

The petition requested the court to direct the officials named in the petition to begin work on the proposed dam and finish it within its stipulated period.

The dam’s proposed site on Indus River is Kalabagh area in Punjab’s Mianwali district. It has been a bone of contention between the provinces for many years.

In 2004, the then president Pervez Musharraf announced he would construct Kalabagh Dam for the country’s best interest. However, when the government of Pakistan Peoples Party came in power in 2008, former prime minister Raja Parvez Ashraf announced the dam will not be constructed because of opposition from K-P, Sindh and other stakeholders, and that it was no longer feasible.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 23^rd, 2015.