Kalabagh Dam issue: PPP, ANP flared up at Imran’s comment

Say any effort to resurrect the spectre of the project would be seriously confronted.

ISLAMABAD: Opposition parties’ lawmakers in the upper house on Tuesday raised an outcry against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chairman Imran Khan’s alleged statement to start a campaign to pave way for construction of Kalabagh dam (KBD).

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Senator Aijaz Dhamra triggered the debate. He alleged that Imran Khan – while speaking to Indian media recently – had expressed his will to soon initiate a campaign across Pakistan for KBD construction.

He said Imran’s statement was an insult to three provincial assemblies that had passed unanimous resolutions against the construction of the KBD. He claimed that almost 200,000 acres of land in Thatta and Badin would turn into desert if the dam was built. “Any such move would be opposed at all costs,” Dhamra warned.

His party colleague, veteran politician Senator Raza Rabbani said it was the K-P assembly which first opposed the construction of the KBD.

“People talking of the KBD should first try bring a resolution in its favour in the K-P assembly, Rabbani said, adding that any effort at the KBD construction would first have to deal with the resolutions passed by the provincial assemblies.

“Kalabagh dam has been buried once and for all. When a military dictator could not build it; so how can the leader of a new political party undertake the task?” said Senator Abdul Nabi Bangash from Awami National Party (ANP).

He said the KBD would make barren thousands of acres of land in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Sindh and. “Instead the huge potential to generate 34,000 megawatt (MW) of power in Chitral and Swat should be utilised,” he said, adding that the government should focus on investing in those areas.

Senator Chaudhry Jaffar Iqbal from treasury benches further infuriated the ANP and PPP senators, when he accused that India spend Rs12 billion annually for funding opposition to KBD in Pakistan.

He said the PML-N government was not keen on constructing the KBD. “However, it is a fact that the country needs dams to overcome energy crisis,” Igbal said.

Gas issue

The PPP and the ANP members also alleged that the federal government was denying provinces’ industrial units their right to provision of gas supply particular the gas producing areas of Sindh and the K-P.

“It is violating Article 158 of the Constitution by not providing gas particularly to Karachi,” said Senator Rabbani. He also protested the absence of the relevant minister in the Senate to answer the senators’ questions.

Later, Federal Minister for Petroleum Shahid Khaqan Abbasi told the house that the federal government could not provide gas to any new locations due to acute shortage of resources. “The provinces or the parliamentarians themselves would have to pay for lying down pipelines and other expenses if they wanted gas supply to new locations,” he added.

He further told senators that the government would immediately implement Rs25,000 in urgent fees for installation of new gas connections and 10% of all new gas connections would be installed on urgent fee.