LHC orders: Sherpao takes firm stand against Kalabagh Dam

Sherpao says the court should refrain from passing orders on contentious issues between provinces.

PESHAWAR:

The provincial president of Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) has strongly opposed the Lahore High Court’s (LHC) orders to construct the Kalabagh Dam.

QWP leader Sikandar Sherpao said on Wednesday that “after witnessing the devastation caused by the 2010 floods in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), the QWP will never allow the construction of the controversial water reservoir.”

He said the court should refrain from passing orders on contentious issues between provinces, adding that two provincial assemblies had already passed resolutions against it. “The 2012 floods again proved that the Kalabagh Dam project is faulty and in case of a flood the Nowshera district could be swept away,” he said.

Earlier, the ruling Awami National Party (ANP) and the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) also spoke against the LHC orders for the construction of the dam.

Criticising the government’s decision to cut the Annual Development Fund for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), the QWP provincial chief said that people in the tribal belt had suffered tremendously because of militancy and cutting their development fund would adversely affect their rehabilitation.

Furthermore, he urged both the Pakistani and Afghan governments to take concrete steps towards ending mistrust among neighbours, which he said is important to bring durable peace in the region.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 13^th, 2012.