Voicing their opposition to the widely debated Kalabagh Dam, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the Awami National Party (ANP) on Monday submitted resolutions against the project in Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assemblies respectively, a private TV channel reported.
Submitting a resolution on behalf of his party in the KP Assembly, ANP parliamentary leader Sardar Hussain Babak said the controversial issue of construction of Kalabagh Dam should not be raised again and again, suggesting the government to work on other dams instead of Kalabagh.
The resolution submitted by PPP MPA Taimur Talpur reads, “The Assembly of Sindh expresses grave concern over the announcement about the construction of Kalabagh Dam. It’s a known fact that people of Sindh, irrespective of their party affiliation, have repeatedly opposed construction of Kalabagh Dam on the Indus River. Kalabagh will ruin the economy and agriculture of Sindh and the Indus Delta will vanish.”
“We feel insecure and being affectees of dams and canals by upper riparian, we have suffered a lot, our crops are on decrease and poverty is on the rise,” the resolutions sates. Those who are opposing Kalabagh Dam are being threatened with trial Article 6 of the constitution, Talpur said in the resolution.
However, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) MPA Haleem Adil Sheikh said that the federal government had no intention to build the Kalabagh Dam without developing consensus over the issue. Addressing media outside the Sindh Assembly, the PTI leader maintained that Imran Khan and the federal government were collecting funds for Diamer-Bhasha and Mohmand dams, not the Kalabagh Dam.
Published in Daily Times, September 18th 2018.
