Kalabagh Dam: High Court issues notice to Centre

Petitioner said K-P suffered the most as even after completion of Basha Dam it still deprived of additional water.

LAHORE: Justice Umar Ata Bandial of the Lahore High Court issued notice to the federal government, on Monday, on a writ petition seeking directions for the government to convene a meeting of the Council of Common Interests (CCI) to build consensus on the construction of the KalaBagh Dam (KBD). The judge issued the notice for May 7. Advocate Syed Feroze Shah Gillani filed the petition. He submitted that the former caretaker chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, also the former chairman of  Wapda, Shamsul Mulk on October 9, 2010 had said that KBD was a matter of the country’s survivial and not just an issue for the Punjab. The petitioner said Khyber Pakhtunkhawa suffered the most because of the delay in KBD’s construction as even after completion of the Basha Dam the province would continue to be deprived of additional water. He said if KBD was built water would be available for vast tracts of KP land at an affordable price because the level of water would be high enough to irrigate farms. He said the purpose of CCI was to iron out differences between the provinces and the federation. He prayed that direction be issued to the government that the CCI take charge of the KBD project.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 10^th, 2012.