Construction of Bhasha dam kicks off in Feb: Musharraf
ISLAMABAD, January 18 (Online): President General Pervez Musharraf has said that all major water reservoirs in the country will be constructed by the end of 2016 whereas in the best interest of the nation Bhasha and Munda dams will be build first and he will inaugurate the construction of Bhasha Dam in February 2006.
"The construction of water reservoirs is a complex issue and a decision has been taken in the federal cabinet meeting that all dams are must for the economy of the country Bhasha, Kalabagh, Akori, Munda and Kuram Tangi dams will be built and as far as reservation of provinces are concerned, their qualms will be allayed," he observed in his address to the nation on Tuesday at state media.
President General Pervez Musharraf has said that the country was facing some challenges at the present and his address to the nation was very much necessary in the current state of affairs.
The president held out his assurance that he will do his every bit to change the public opinion on construction of mega water projects and expressed the hope the situation will run to normalcy after his explanation over the matter.
He said we want the countrymen to prosper and will take every decision in the best interest of the masses.
Referring to recent World Bank report issued on 22 November 2005, Pakistan has exhausted its water resources and need to immediate measures to build water reservoirs, as Pakistan only has capacity to store thirty days of water, India can store water up to 130 days of water, United States 900 days.
Pakistan’s current storage capacity is only 9% of the available water resources against World’s average of 40%, he noted per capita water storage 150 cubic meter, China 2000, Australia, 5000, US 5000 cubic meter, our economy will excel if new water projects are launched and completed.
The reports says that every new mega dam will add four to five percent to Pak GDP, if we built one dam it could add six billion dollars in our GDP, if this figure touches two we will get 12 billion dollars and if we will build three dams then the figure will multiply with three manifolds to eighteen billion dollars.
Pakistan, he said is getting 3 billion dollars revenue from Tarbela Dam, which is benefiting forty percent of our population.
According to World Bank report, the president said Pakistan can generate 5000 megawatt whereas we are only generating 14000 mega watt electricity against our requirement of 20000 mega watt electricity, this situation has forced us to produce electricity from oil, which is seven manifolds costlier then the electricity generated from the water.
"The developed nations are generating seventy percent of their electricity from water, and we should learn a lesion from them," he underlined.
General Pervez Musharraf went on to say that the people of Sindh are opposing KBD the most, whereas the people living on lower grounds give money and plead to their governments for building water reservoirs for supply of water to their lands, but in country of ours the situation is complete reverse. I am astonished over it, he remarked.
He mentioned the recent report of A N G Abbasi commission and said Construction of new dams is imperative for the agricultural and industrial development of the country. "I want that interests of all the provinces are protected."
"All members of the committee agreed that Kalabagh and Basha Dam can be constructed. One member has, however, observed that no diversion of water should be allowed from the dams. The Chairman of the Committee has observed that the construction of only one of the two dams, of which feasibility is available, can be started with edge for Basha Dam over Kalabagh Dam, " he added.
In our country three major river Indus, Chenab and Jehlum but still people are forced to drink contaminated water I constituted three committee three years ago in 2003, one committee is headed by Nisar memon, second committee is headed by A N G Abbasi and third was based on the report of foreign consultants on Down Stream Kotri issue all the reports are available on websites.
There is unequivocal consensus on immediate construction of new reservoirs. Water Accord of 1991 is sacrosanct and should be followed in letter and spirit.
President said that the second issue is Balochistan issue. I want to make it clear that it is not issue of Baloch nation. People are telling lies. They are spreading wrong rumours for their personal interests. Baloch nation is bold and are patriotic Pakistanis who want prosperity and development of the country.
He went on to say that a few tribal leaders have held the entire country hostage for the sake of personal gains. They are engaged in actions for the last thirty to forty years. They are undermining the writ of law. These tribal chiefs have put in place their feudalistic norms. They don’t want people prosper and become educated. They insulted their progressive Baloch fellow sub tribes. They got their beards shaved, he pointed out.
Kohlu package of Rs 1. 5 billion was announced. This all was meant for the economic uplift and education development of the poor masses. But they lobbed rockets in reply to it. These are tribal chiefs who are involved in the attacks on PIDC building in Karachi, Ichra in Lahore, rocket firing in Quetta and gas pipelines, electricity installations and railway tracks.
President underscored that Mega projects of Balochistan and development projects are running under contribution. Three Chinese friends were killed in Gwadar port. How tyrannical it is they are perpetrating cruelty with their own people. Sub tribes are being banished from their homes who are now living in Punjab and Sindh in miserable condition.
President pointed out that these tribes had employed one or two thousand militia men. They are paying them 6000 rupees per head. These tribal chiefs are doing so for two reasons i.e in order to suppress their own people and to put them in jails. They on the other side have set up three dozens farari camps. Order is issued to them from there and these militia men strike. These militia men are engaged in acts of sabotage in other parts of the country.
They extort money from the people which is a source of funneling money to them. Second source is coal mines which they have held in their occupation. They are undertaking foreign tours. We know them and deal with them well.
President said that we can not offer garlands to them in return for attacking helicopter of frontier corps general. I have been trained in a manner that I have to take action against them.
President noted that it was absolutely wrong that army interfered there. Only Frontier Corps is initiating action there. Action is being launched against those who have set up farari camps and held the coal mines under their illegal occupation. No siege was made of Kohlu and Dera Bugti nor the army had undertaken any operation. Only one battalion army is sitting in Quetta.
He maintained that army is not mad that it kills women and children nor such permission will be accorded. This is only targeted operation against miscreants, he maintained.
President reiterated that action was being taken against the elements who were against the development projects and were involved in creating law and order situation.
President while citing to national unity, national finance award, national development, prosperity, poverty alleviation and dams issue said that unluckily no government of the past succeeded in sorting out these problems. The burden of these problems fell on my government soon after its installation. It is imperative that these issues are resolved as any delay will detrimental for the country.
First of all we take NFC award issue, president said. There is issue of distribution of money by federation to provinces. It has two parts. First is revenue issue and second is some billion rupees are given to Balochistan and NWFP. 42.7 percent shares were given to provinces by federation.
President announced that federation was ready to give more share to provinces. It is ready to increase it to 50 percent. But the provinces are not agreeing on it. They don’t want to secure original amount from the federation. They are in clash with each other on the distribution of shares among themselves. No government could take decision on NFC award.
Therefore I had to interfere. All the four chief ministers and prime minister were called. All the chief ministers authorized me to take decision on NFC award. But when I asked the chief ministers to authorize me in writing, I very regretfully say that NWFP returned it with two conditions. President can not take any decision in this situation when the provinces are not agreed over it.
He held that clause 6 of section 160 of the constitutions empowers the president to make amendment in it. This amendment will remain in place unless all the provinces agree on new NFC award.
Therefore, I after consultation with the Prime Minister and team of experts have decided that interim financial aid which is granted by federation to provinces be increased in order to bring improvement in fiscal condition of the provinces.
The decision on amendment runs into two parts that is divisible pool and subvention, he said adding that subvention was earlier 42.7 percent which will now be increased to 45.33 percent. One percent increase will be made gradually every year in this respect. Therefore it will grow to 50 percent within five years. This way provinces will get 50 percent money from the federation.
On the issue of earthquake affectees President General Pervez Musharraf has said few elements were giving the impression that government of Pakistan has forgotten the quake affectees but I assure you that our minds, heart and attention and totally looking at the situation of the quake affectees and the strategy we evolved for quake affectees is still in practice.
He said the government, people and Pakistan Army are actively engaged in relief operation which, he added is going on successfully in all affected areas.
He appreciated the efforts being made by entire nation, NGOs and Armed Forces from Khyber to Karachi for the early rehabilitation of quake survivors and reconstruction of affected areas.
He observed that the world community responded promptly soon after the earthquake havoc, and funds made available by foreign and local donors would be utilized exclusively and judiciously for reconstruction of the infrastructure destroyed in the affected AJK and NWFP areas.
The President in his address said that the recently held Donors’ Conference had attracted participants from around 85 countries, including representatives of international lending agencies like IMF and the World Bank. Several donors promised soft-term loans payable on easy installments and conditions. He said international community has pledged 6.2 billion dollars whereas Overseas Pakistanis have send Rs 6.50 billion to Pakistan and I appreciate their commitment towards the people suffered from the quake. He said the government was working upon a successful strategy to manage resources, and is now implementing the strategy in a transparent manner, coupled with immaculate accountability. The entire procedure is computerized and all details of distribution of quake relief has been put on website, he held.
He pointed out that during his visit to Devos for attending Economic council conference on January 25 to 26, he will highlight the issue in his address.
President said that about five hundred thousand tents were needed for the quake affectees, whereas on government plea and looking at the situation of quake affected areas Pakistani nation, international community and factories provided eight hundred and fifty thousand tents, which have so far been distributed among the quake affectees. We have so far erected 605 tent villages in the country.
He also said that 1.3 million shelter homes have been constructed for quake affectees living above five thousand feet altitude. I hope these homes will be helpful for the people living at such a high altitude, particularly in this weather.
Some elements were fearing that epidemics might break out in quake affected areas and a second wave of death was awaiting people in the winter, but nothing has happened so far, I feel these elements are very poor sighted and narrow minded and they are deliberately trying to disturb the people, he added.
The president said financial assistance to the tune of rupees 18 billion is also being provided to affectees for reconstruction of their houses and business and we have so far not received any kind of complaints as far as distribution procedure is concerned.
The quake affectees will get rupees 1,75,000 (one hundred and seventy five thousand) in three installments so that they could build quake-proof homes in their locales and Armed forces as well as teams working in rehabilitation work will assist the quake-affectees to built their houses.
The president also said that government will also set up health and education institutions in the quake affected areas and they will be built with state of the art construction technology, he said and added government is evolving strategic planning in this regard.
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