The Kalabagh Dam resurrected

‘National interest’ is often used on such matters, but we need to think if the internal strain is good for our nation.

We had come to believe that the controversies surrounding the construction of the Kalabagh Dam have been laid to rest. However, just recently, it has been exhumed and resurrected by the Lahore High Court (LHC). In a ruling that has come as something of a tidal wave, the Chief Justice of the LHC, Justice Umar Ata Bandial, hearing a petition, has ordered the federal government to begin constructing the dam. Justice Bandial has cited Article 154 of the Constitution and the fact that the Council of Common Interests had given a go-ahead for the contentious dam to be built in 1991.

The legalities of the matter may all be in order, but it is for the experts to comment and advise on this development. When running a country, a government needs to look at the broader picture and keep realities in mind. This is why the PPP government, early on in its tenure, stated that the dam had been ‘shelved’. This was a sensible step. While the building of the dam, to be based in Punjab, may raise our water storage capacity, it threatens to critically weaken federal unity. All three smaller provinces oppose the construction of the dam, with loud protests already heralding from Sindh — a province that has seen water flowing down the Indus dwindle as a result of reservoirs built upstream. Sindh nationalist forces argue that the Kalabagh Dam would lead to a further reduction in this flow.

We need to look at the realities in our country. Right now, the federation is under stress and a veritable insurgency has gripped Balochistan. The decision regarding the construction of the contentious dam does not help matters. Politics is deeply entrenched in the question of the Kalabagh Dam. While the term ‘national interest’ is often used on such matters, we need to think if further internal strain is good for our nation. This is a political issue, going beyond our energy needs and hence needs to be decied by political means. The government must be permitted to decide as a representative of all people in the country. If other institutions begin intervening, we may be opening up a whole new can of worms.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 2^nd, 2012.