Kalabagh Dam: news & articles
 

[B][U]Musharraf warns of Sindh’s desertification: ‘Construction of dams essential’[/U][/B]

[B]By Shamim Shamsi[/B]

SUKKUR, Dec 22: President General Pervez Musharraf said here on Thursday that if work on new dams was not taken up now, a process of desertification would start in Sindh after 2010.

The president said he had launched a mass contact campaign to make the people of Sindh realize the gravity of the situation and the need to build new reservoirs.

He stressed the need for consensus on the issue and said that reservations of Sindh would be removed.

He said that due to sedimentation in Tarbela and Mangla reservoirs, water resources of the country were depleting fast and, therefore, construction of new dams had become essential.

The president was addressing representatives of growers, nazims, councillors and members of the national and provincial assemblies from Sukkur, Shikarpur, Khairpur, Naushahro Feroze, Ghotki, Kashmore, Qambar-Shahdadkot, Larkana, Jacobabad and Nawabshah districts at the Sukkur airport as part of his mass contact programme.

He said his campaign was not confined to any particular dam; he was working for more dams and for formulating a national water policy under which large- and medium- water reservoirs could be built to meet the country’s future agriculture needs.

He said the issue would be discussed in the National Assembly and relevant reports would be published in Urdu, Sindhi, English and Pashto for eliciting public opinion and educating people about merit and demerits of dams. He said the issue could also be discussed in Senate and it could even be taken up at the level of judiciary.

Gen Musharraf said that keeping in view the sensitivity of the matter, he had come to directly contact the people of Sindh to tell them about the importance of water reservoirs. He said a decision on the dam would be taken after taking the people of Sindh into confidence. He said he would go to the last extent to address their ‘genuine’ reservations.

He maintained that new dams would bring more than 30 million acres of land under cultivation and strengthen the economy. He said dams were vital for Pakistan’s survival. “Any delay in a decision on dams will be suicidal for us,” he observed.

He said that a detailed designing and feasibility report of the Kalabagh dam had been completed and if work was started on the project in 2006 it would be completed in 2012.

He said the government could provide judicial and constitutional guarantees with regard to distribution of water from the dam. Institutions of parliament, judiciary and the executive could be put in action for taking such decisions and to protect the interests of Sindh, he added.

About Bhasha, Akhori and Katzara dams, the president said these were likely to be completed in 2016, 2014, 2019, respectively, and completion of the dams along with Kalabagh by 2020 would mean that the country would have 20MAF (million acre feet) of water to meet its agriculture needs.

He said the Kalabagh dam could store monsoon flows and additional flows coming from the Kabul, Chitral, Swat, Soan and Haro rivers and added that it was the only project ready for implementation. He said there were also the problem of an access road to Bhasha and some 350km road would have to be built for the purpose. He maintained that the Bhasha dam site was away from the monsoon belt and, therefore, from the feasibility point of view, Kalabagh was the most suitable site for building a dam.

Answering a question, he said it could be ensured that no canals were taken out from the Kalabagh dam and that it remained a storage reservoir.

The president also addressed journalists.

He asked the Sindh media to play its role in a positive way to educate the people of the province on the issue. He said the Kalabagh dam would bring more benefits and prosperity to Sindh than other provinces. He said he was aware that the people of Sindh had some very genuine reservations about dams, especially the Kalabagh. He said he wanted to speak to them with an open mind.

The president said the government planned to build a barrage at Sehwan which would have five canals, but work on the Rs100 billion project had been delayed because there was no water available in the absence of a dam.

He said all nine members of the technical committee, including its chairman A.N.G. Abbasi, had agreed on building major reservoirs. Eight of them had supported construction of the Kalabagh dam on the condition that no canal was taken out of it, he added.

Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad, Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahimi and other officials were also present.

APP adds: President Musharraf held in Karachi an important interaction with people of different shades of opinion on the issue of water reservoirs.

The meeting, held under the aegis of the Sindhi TV channel KTN, was also attended by the president of the Sindh Chamber of Agriculture, Syed Qamruzzaman Shah, who discussed the issue in detail vis-a-vis reservations of the people of Sindh, lack of trust and misgivings.

Without expressing opposition to the need for construction of more water reservoirs in the country, Mr Shah suggested to the president that construction of Bhasha and Kalabagh Dams should be taken up simultaneously.

A number of other participants also expressed their views on the issue.

They included former president Farooq Ahmed Khan Leghari, Senate Chairman Mohammedmian Soomro, Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim, federal ministers Ghous Bux Mahar and Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, Sindh former minister Imtiaz Ahmed Shaikh, Provincial Coordination Minister Dr Sohrab Sarki, Sindh Minister for Mines Irfanullah Marwat, noted intellectual Hameed Sindhi, convener of Parliamentary Committee on Water Reservoirs, Senator Nisar Ahmed Memon, prominent industrialist Zubair Motiwala and Sindh Assembly Deputy Speaker Rahila Tiwana.

President Musharraf said he could have easily wriggled out of this issue, but being a Sindhi he had taken it up in the larger interest of Pakistan and especially Sindh. He pointed out that in the past this issue had been politicized so much that it had hardened people’s stand.

[url]http://www.dawn.com/2005/12/23/top1.htm[/url]

[B][I]Kalabagh termed threat to national integrity[/I][/B]

[I]By Latif Baloch[/I]

KARACHI, Dec 22: Rejecting the Kalabagh dam, leaders of various political and nationalist parties on Thursday warned that the controversial project was detrimental to the sovereignty and integrity of the country.

Speaking at a big rally in front of the Sindh High Court building here on Shahrah-i-Iraq, they accused the government of conspiring against the unity of federation by creating a rift among provinces.

They criticized the military rulers for pursuing ‘ill-advised’ policies that had jeopardized the country’s integrity, particularly the Kalabagh dam plan and the ongoing military ‘operation’ in Balochistan.

The rally was organized by the Anti-Kalabagh Dam and Greater Thal Canal Action Committee which has representation of several political and nationalist organizations.

Prominent among speakers were Leader of Opposition in the Senate Raza Rabbani, Action Committee convener Syed Qaim Ali Shah, Sindh National Front chairman Sardar Mumtaz Ali Bhutto, Awami National Party president Asfandyar Wali Khan, Sindh Taraqqi Pasand Party chief Dr Qadir Magsi, Awami Party leader Rasul Bakhsh Palijo, Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam leader Dr Khalid Soomro, Balochistan National Party chief Akhtar Mengal and National Party chairman Dr Abdul Hayee Baloch.

Earlier, the participants carrying flags of their respective parties and raising slogans against the Kalabagh dam and government converged on Mazar-i-Quaid and started their march towards the venue of the rally where a large number of people were already present.

In his speech, Mumtaz Bhutto said that by staging such a huge rally the people of Sindh had sent a clear message to rulers that they were against the construction of the Kalabagh dam.

He said that since Pakistan came into being rulers had been making moves to turn the life of Sindhis miserable.

He declared that unless the rule of Islamabad was put to an end and the rights of provinces were recognized, exploitation of smaller provinces would continue.

Mr Asfandyar Wali assured the Sindhi people that they were not alone in their struggle against the Kalabagh dam as Pukhtuns, Balochs and Seraikis stood behind them.

The ANP leader said he had made it clear to General Musharraf that Kalabagh dam and Pakistan could not coexist and he had to choose one of them.

In fact, he pointed out, the rulers were trying to pit smaller provinces against Punjab. He maintained that people of smaller provinces were fighting not only for rights but for their survival, and rulers should know that there would be no compromise on it.

Mr Palijo alleged that successive rulers had dishonoured the pledges of the Founder of the Nation. He said military rulers had always betrayed the masses, worked against democracy, subjugated the smaller provinces and trampled the constitutional rule.

Dr Qadir Magsi urged the government to stop what he called the victimization of smaller provinces, saying Sindhi people had proved that they would not surrender their rights.

He said Sindhi people would never allow the construction of dam as they considered it as death warrant.

Mr Mengal and the Dr Hayee Baloch condemned the rulers for launching a military operation in Balochistan. They assured the people of Sindh of their full support in their struggle against the Kalabagh dam.

PPP leader Syed Qaim Ali Shah said that Sindhis, Balochs and Pukhtuns had given their verdict that they were against the construction of the dam.

JUI’s Khalid Soomro said the country was being ruled by generals who had allegedly sold out Pakistan to Americans.

Mairaj Mohammad Khan called for early solution of the issue of the NFC award.

PPP Senator Raza Rabbani, PML-N’s leader Mamnoon Husain, National Workers Party leader Yusuf Mustikhan and others also spoke.

[url]http://www.dawn.com/2005/12/23/top3.htm[/url]

[B][I]Skardu-Katzarah dam best option: report[/I][/B]

By Khaleeq Kiani

ISLAMABAD, Dec 22: The Skardu-Katzarah dam is the best option for the country and Bhasha dam is much better than Kalabagh, says the report of an expert committee on construction of water resources headed by A.N.G Abbasi.

In its 18-page “Conclusions and Recommendations” on future dams, the eight-member technical committee, calls for honouring and respecting the sanctity of the 1991 Water Accord. It also calls for providing guarantees for existing water uses of the provinces in case of construction of new dams, equitable distribution of existing and future water resources and undoing ministerial decision of 1994 on sharing of water shortages.

The full report has five volumes and is spans over more than 4,000 pages. The last 18 pages of the report, written by Mr Abbasi, were provided to Dawn by sources in the ministry of water and power.

Seven other members of the committee have separately written their joint comments. Minutes of all meetings of the committee, comments of all members and representatives of all relevant government agencies and official record and data is also part of the report. President Gen Pervez Musharraf constituted the committee to develop consensus on construction of new dams about two years ago.

Mr Abbasi has also opposed representation of NWFP and Balochistan in Indus River System Authority on the ground that two provinces remain unaffected due to any water shortage.

Following is the edited text of the “Conclusions and Recommendations” of the technical committee’s report:

On different occasions, Wapda has presented different figures about the availability of water in the country, which has created great confusion. If we take Wapda figures based on downstream approach, it becomes clear that the average water availability in the country is negative to the tune of 0.25 million acre feet (MAF). Sometimes, surplus water is also available but only in case of floods in western rivers.

Wapda has shown an average water flow of 35 MAF in the downstream in 28 years of post-Tarbela (1976-2003) period. A review of Wapda record suggest that in seven out of 28 years, 50 per cent or more of 35 MAF water went downstream Kotri and five per cent or less in another seven years.

Hence, it can be said in the light of post-Tarbela water flows that surplus water is available for storage for 10 out of 28 years. If a dam of six MAF of storage capacity is constructed, then only 22 per cent of the surplus available water can be stored.

Another dam of same capacity could additionally store another 18.9 per cent of available surplus water. This means that two new dams could together store 41 per cent of water in surplus years and remaining 59 per cent water would go downstream.

By comparison with these two dams (Kalabagh and Bhasha), if a carryover dam of 35 MAF (Skardu-Katzarah) storage capacity is constructed, about 84 per cent of water in surplus years could be stored.

If a dam is built with a capacity of six MAF, it can be filled for 10 years in 28 years and if another dam of same capacity is built, it can be filled for seven years and partially filled for three years. A carryover dam of 35 MAF of capacity would be completely filled for three out of 28 years and partially filled for seven years.

WATER SHORTAGE: In Rabi season, 23 MAF of water is available, of which 15 MAF could be stored in Mangla and Tarbela dams. The construction of these two dams has increased the overall water availability by 65 per cent in Rabi season.

Wapda’s post-Tarbela study reveals that surplus water is available in the canal system during Rabi and shortage is experienced for only a few years. On the other hand, shortage is more common during Kharif and hence there is no surplus water to build new dams.

FLOOD CANALS: Flood canals, like Katchi, Rainee and the Greater Thal canal being built under Wapda’s Vision 2025 programme, should be given least priority and maximum preference should be given to 36 million acres of the existing irrigated land. For this, 117.35 MAF water share of provinces as determined in the 1991 Accord should be protected and at least 10 MAF of water below Kotri should be guaranteed.

LINK CANALS: Link canals like Chashma-Jhelum and Taunsa-Punjnad are not permanent canals and replacement works does not in any case mean that these are privileged canals. These link canals could only be operated when there is surplus water in the system and with express consent of Sindh and these should not be a permanent burden on river Indus.

If this proposition continues then the plans for construction of new reservoirs would be jeopardized, as it would increase reservations among the people.

This should also be declared “once and for all” that Chashma-Jhelum and Taunsa-Punjnad are inter-provincial canals and do not belong to Punjab only. Hence, Irsa should not release water to these two canals on the indent of Punjab along and instead these should be operated on all-Pakistan basis under 1991 water accord in an equitable manner.

GUIDELINES FOR LINK CANALS: Water from Indus River should not be diverted through link canals unless all the provinces are given their share approved on 10-daily basis by the council of common interest under the 1991 accord.

In normal circumstances, water should not be released through Chashma-Jhelum and Taunsa-Punjnad canals in Kharif season because there is enough water available in the Jhelum-Chenab Zone during Kharif. If at all there is a need, water should be released in these canals through provincial consensus under 10-dailies approved in the water accord and no more. The CJ and TP should not be operated when Mangla dam is being filled.

GUIDELINES ON DAMS: The storage in future dams should start only after meeting requirement of all the existing barrages on 10-daily basis approved under the 1991 accord and after ensuring separate 10-MAF of water for Kotri Downstream.

Second, the storage in new dams should start after filling the Tarbela dam. In extraordinary situations, when there is surplus water then new dams could also be filled simultaneously.

Third, it should be incorporated in the operation of dams that continuous flushing is taking place simultaneously to ensure that there is no accumulation of silt in dams.

GUIDING PRINCIPLES FOR WATER USES FROM DAMS: First, water from new dams would be utilised to meet only shortages based on 10-daily uses approved by the CCI under the 1991 Water Accord.

Second, the distribution of water from new dams among the provinces should be made under Para-4 of the 1991 Accord that guarantees 37 per cent share each to Sindh and Punjab, 14 per cent for the NWFP and 12 per cent for Balochistan.

Third, new dams would not be filled to the capacity and the filling would be made based on expected annual availability. This means that new dams would not necessarily be filled every year even if these were not filled for 10 years. This principle would also be applicable in case of Tarbela and Mangla dams’ filling.

Four, about 3.2 MAF of storage capacity has been lost in the existing reservoirs due to accumulation of silt, which would be recovered by the completion of raising of Mangla Dam project. If life of the dams is to be enhanced, then the problem of silt would have to be removed which could be done only through installation of sluicing devices. The report said the Wapda has put under the carpet a detailed study under Tam’s Report of 1998 on sluicing devices.

LARGE DAMS: The Wapda has taken no step as required under the year 2000 report of the World Commission on Dams, which had been prepared in the light of experiences of large dams constructed throughout the world. This report should be taken into account before taking any decision on construction of large dams in the country.

RECOMMENDATIONS ON NEW DAMS: Katzarah-Skardu is the only feasible dam for carryover purposes. Its pre-feasibility study has been completed while feasibility study could be completed in three to four years. “This is the best dam for the country” because dams are constructed on four principles, the report said.

These include: a dam should have maximum storage capacity, it could give maximum benefits, it has bare minimum cost and maximum power generation capacity and it should not have a problem of silt. Only Katzarah-Skardu meets these criteria.

The feasibility study of Kalabagh dam was conducted in 1984 and 1988. It has neither been updated since then nor its cost been reviewed. All assumptions used in these studies are pre-water accord period and post- accord figures have so far not been considered. Hence, its feasibility study should be conducted afresh. In the given circumstances, Bhasha dam with a higher potential is much better than Kalabagh dam.

There are a number of reservations on Kalabagh dam, particularly over its right bank canal, left bank canal and flooding of Nowshera. All these issues should be settled to remove reservations and fears.

It may also be pointed out that if Kalabagh and Bhasha dams, if constructed, would not be filled every year and instead would remain empty for years. Besides, these dams would not be able to provide more than two MAF for many years. Hence, large expenditures on new dams should be made after taking into account all these factors.

Furthermore, another thing should also be kept in mind that whenever a new dam is built, preference should be given to the rights of the lower riparians than filling of dams and in case of any shortage, it should be met under the 1991 accord.

The sanctity of the 1991 Water apportionment accord should be ensured and guaranteed and the provinces should be given water share on the basis of 10-daily uses approved by the CCI under para 14(a) and 14(b) of the accord.

The ministerial decision of 1994 has no legal ground and hence should be undone and directives issued by President General Musharraf on October 23 in this regard should be implemented.

If a province is not sharing water shortage, it has no right to be a member of the Irsa. Punjab is drawing higher water share under historic annual average uses of 1977-82, while NWFP and Balochistan does not share shortages. This means that only Sindh suffers in case of shortage, which is totally unjustified. Hence, the water accord should be implemented in letter and spirit and decisions of the CCI should be honoured, the report concluded.

[url]http://www.dawn.com/2005/12/23/top4.htm[/url]

[B][I]Pagara supports Kalabagh dam[/I][/B]

By Habib Khan Ghori

KARACHI, Dec 22: Pakistan Muslim League (Functional) chief Pir Pagara on Thursday announced his support for the Kalabagh dam which, he said, would also benefit Hurs. Pir Pagara was addressing a crowded press conference at his residence ‘Kingri House’ on Thursday afternoon.

He said the dam was being opposed due to the prevailing mistrust with Punjab. It will be the obligation of President Musharraf, or whosoever is in command, to implement all terms and conditions regarding the dam and the water accords, including the one signed in 1991.

The PML-F chief said that he had earlier stated that there was no future of the Sindh Assembly. It was the president who had been keeping it alive despite its unwieldiness. Now it appears there is no need to keep this “lifeless house” in place and the vacuum can be filled with a caretaker set-up.

On the possibility of a national government, he said there was no way left to overcome the current crisis (except by forming a national government) but it all depended on the president as to who should be invited and inducted in the cabinet. He recalled that he had forecast that the system was not going to work.

When his attention was drawn to a statement of Sindh chief minister against the Kalabagh dam, the spiritual leader of Hurs said the weather was changing and he had a hunch that a political quake was waiting in the wings, which might turn everything topsy-turvy.

On Dr Arbab Rahim’s remarks that he would rather go back home riding on a donkey than support the dam, the PML-F chief wondered how his area, a desert, could be irrigated. As such, he would only see water but won’t be able to use it.

Regarding the president’s remarks about a political quake in the country, Pir Pagara said he was not aware of the timing of the quake but the president was very much clear when the quake would strike.

When asked how much support President Musharraf would be able to muster during his visit to Sindh, he said it was not his concern whether the president got support from institutions “but we want to cultivate our lands”.

When pointed out that the Kalabagh dam was the only subject on which his views converged with those of PML chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, he recalled that he had been favouring the construction of the dam right from the beginning. “If dams are built, electricity would be available at cheap rates. At present we are suffering because of PPP which had made electricity costly.”

He said except Kalabagh, no other dam could be built first because of the ease of moving heavy machinery to the site.

About Kalabagh opponents’ view that the country would break up if the project was taken up, Pir Pagara said no province could be separated from the country unless the big province pushed it so, or a foreign power annexed it.

When it was pointed out that his party’s legislators were also opposed to the dam plan and that his party could see erosion of its vote bank for lending support to Kalabagh, the PML-F chief said everyone had the right to his opinion.

“As far as we are concerned, the 1991 water accord favoured Sindh as the province received a larger share of water for cultivation, which benefited the Hurs. But the Benazir government signed another agreement in 1994 which hurt Sindh’s interest.”

Pir Pagara sought media’s support in getting the 1991 accord implemented as the PPP was against it. The Thal canal and Reni canal would end up irrigating the lands of Hurs which was objected to by PPP leader Shah Muhammad Shah. “The Thal canal would come up to Mitthi while Reni canal would stop at Umarkot which would bring a vast area under cultivation,” he said.

He said at the annual gathering on 27th Rajab at Dargah Pir Jo Goth he had given good news to his followers that very soon the issue of dam would arise and they (the followers) would get water in excess to cultivate their land, particularly in the desert areas of Sindh.

He said no landlord was opposed to the Kalabagh dam as only those were agitating who did not have any land. He said “you cannot find any landlord saying he does not want water or who was ready to accept less water”.

The PML-F chief said those opposing the dam were self-styled Sindhi leaders who were in the habit of saying first “Na Khape”.

At the time of construction of Ghulam Muhammad Barrage, it was said that it would only benefit Hurs “but now the entire Sindh is taking advantage of its water”.

[url]http://www.dawn.com/2005/12/23/top5.htm[/url]

[B][I]ANP sets up committees for rally against dam[/I][/B]

By Our Correspondent

PESHAWAR, Dec 22: The Awami National Party has reiterated its opposition to the construction of the Kalabagh dam and has asked party workers to participate in the anti-Kalabagh dam rally to be held on Dec 29. In this connection, the Nowshera district chapter of the party met on Thursday and formed several committees to make arrangements for the rally, said a party press release here.

Speaking on the occasion, ANP provincial secretary general Mian Iftikhar Hussain said that district Nowshera would play a central role in the rally.

He said that invitation had been extended to other parties to participate in the rally to thwart what he called President Gen Pervez Musharraf’s attempts to destroy fertile lands.

The rally would prove that the people don’t accept the Kalabagh dam because it was a project aimed at the destruction of the people of smaller provinces at the cost of Punjab.

ANP FATA: The ANP Fata chapter also held a meeting at the Bacha Khan Markaz on Thursday which pledged to ensure maximum participation in the rally.

The meeting was attended by presidents and general secretaries of Fata’s units and provincial party chief Bashir Ahmad Bilour. It was presided over by the party’s provincial vice-president Imran Afridi.

It said that the party had decided to demonstrate on Dec 29 to show its opposition to the Kalabagh dam.

Imran Afridi said that the time had come that party workers came out into the streets and opposed the construction of the Kalabagh dam.

He said that party workers were ready to render any sort of sacrifice to prevent the rulers from playing havoc with their lives.

ANP NWFP president Bashir Bilour said that a huge procession would march towards Nowshera on the scheduled day to take part in the rally.

ANP COMMITTEE: The Anti-Kalabagh Committee of the ANP launched a campaign to gain the support of other parties for participation in the rally.

In this connection, the committee’s chairman, Ghulam Ahmad Bilour, along with its members, Abdul Latif Afridi, Pir Fayyaz Ahmad and Hameedur Rehman, held a meeting with Mukhtiar Ahmad Khan provincial chief of the Pakhtun Milli Awami Party (PMAP) and requested for his party’s support for taking part in the rally.

PMAP’s provincial chief assured his party’s fullest support for the rally.

Committee members also held a meeting with Sabir Shah, provincial chief of the PML-Nawaz.

The PML leader informed the committee that they would decide about participating in the rally in a PML meeting which would be held on Dec 25.

The committee’s chairman urged the participation of all political parties in the rally, saying it was a national issue and all parties should fulfil its national responsibilities in this regard.

[url]http://www.dawn.com/2005/12/23/nat49.htm[/url]

[B][I]Punjab PPP to support Sindh on Kalabagh[/I][/B]

By Our Staff Reporter

LAHORE, Dec 22: The Punjab PPP will join hands with party’s Sindh leader Qaim Ali Shah when he visits the city to protest against the construction of Kalabagh Dam. This was stated by provincial information secretary Naveed Chaudhry while speaking at a press conference along with central deputy information secretary Altaf Qureshi and Iqbal Sialvi here on Thursday.

“People of the Punjab will be siding with their brethren in other provinces in fight against dictatorial decisions of the present regime,” he said.

The Punjab executive council of the party met earlier in the day and adopted a resolution opposing the water reservoir without taking into confidence all federating units. Otherwise the project would endanger solidarity of the country, it feared.

It instead supported construction of small dams whose planning had been done during the second tenure of Ms Benazir Bhutto.

The council expressed its concern at ongoing army “operation” in Balochistan and demanded immediate end to it.

Referring to various directions issued by the Supreme Court to the Punjab government on issues like kite-flying, lavish spending on marriages, etc., it observed that if the province had to be run by the apex court then the government should resign.

Mr Chaudhry said the party had taken notice of PML-N leader Khwaja Saad Rafiq’s anti-PPP statements and had lodged a formal protest with the ARD leadership.

Answering a question, he said adjustments in elections for offices of naib nazims at tehsil and district level the same ARD formula would be adopted that had been implemented in earlier three phases of local polls.

He told reporters that various functions and workers conventions would mark 77th birth anniversary of late prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto from next month. In Lahore, the function would be held on Jan 5.

PML-N: Syed Zafar Ali Shah of the PML-N says construction of Kalabagh dam should be halted until real representatives of the masses take charge of the country’s affairs.

He was speaking at a joint press conference along with MNA Khwaja Saad Rafiq here on Thursday.

“The present assemblies should be dissolved immediately to introduce a government of national consensus for holding fair elections. The dam issue should be left to the people to be elected in these polls.”

The ruling coalition wanted to adopt a resolution in parliament favouring Kalabagh dam but neither the incumbent parliament nor the four provincial assemblies were authorized to approve or disapprove the project, he claimed.

The Khwaja said Gen Musharraf was the main hurdle in the development of a national consensus so the army ruler must resign.

Minto: National Workers Party chief and former president of the Supreme Court Bar Association Abid Hasan Minto has suggested a political solution to the water reservoirs issue by holding dialogue on an equal basis among all federating units.

In a statement on Thursday, he said the step first required cancelling the “unilateral” decision of the government to construct Kalabagh dam.

He said the matter should be referred to the Council of Common Interests which was a constitutional body but has never been activated.

[url]http://www.dawn.com/2005/12/23/nat13.htm[/url]

[B][I]Protest against Kalabagh dam[/I][/B]

By Our Correspondent

SHIKARPUR, Dec 22: Activists of the People’s Party Parliamentarians and its affiliated organizations observed a token hunger strike to protest against construction of Kalabagh dam at the Lakhi gate tower chowk on Thursday. Agha Shamsuddin and Mohammad Paryal of the PPP, Lala Zeb Khan (PPP youth wing), Syed Irfan Shah (SPSF), Syed Umerdin Shah and Maqsood Ahmed participated in the hunger strike.

They rejected the controversial project and termed it a conspiracy against the people of Sindh.

KILLED: Two people were killed and another was injured in an exchange of firing with villagers in Qalandar Bux Gopang village on Wednesday night.

A group of outlaws entered the house of Manthar Gopang to commit an offence.

They opened fire when the villagers retaliated to foil the bid to rustle the cattle.

As a result, two outlaws, later identified as Sabir Jafri and Abid Lohar, were killed.

Their accomplice Deedar Marfani received bullet injuries and was caught by villagers.

The injured was handed over to the Stuart Ganj police.

Later, he was admitted to the civil hospital.

Our Hyderabad Correspon-dent adds: Lawyers of Hyderabad held anti-Kalabagh dam rally outside the press club on Thursday.

The advocates gathered in premises of the sessions court and raised slogans against controversial water project and then reached the press club.

Speaking to protesters the president of the Hyderabad District Bar Association, Chaudhry Bashir Gujjar said that the people of Sindh had already rejected the Kalabagh dam because it would render Sindh dry.

He said that the people would not accept any anti-Sindh project.

Mr Gujjar said that lawyers would also not become part of any such conspiracy as they were loyal to the soil of Sindh.

[url]http://www.dawn.com/2005/12/23/nat46.htm[/url]

[B][I]SC approached on dam issue[/I][/B]

By Our Staff Reporter

ISLAMABAD, Dec 23: A Karachi-based social worker on Friday petitioned the Supreme Court ‘to provide guidelines’ on construction of the controversial Kalabagh dam.

Chairman Awami Himmayat Tehrik Pakistan Maulvi Iqbal Haider has pleaded that the provincial assemblies, which passed resolutions against the dam, and leaders of opposition in these assemblies were bound under Article 155 of the constitution to incorporate their reservations and objections in a written complaint to be filed before the Council of Common Interest (CCI).

Mr Haider has cited the federal government, and the governments of the Punjab, Sindh, the NWFP and Balochistan as well as leaders of the opposition in the four provincial assemblies as respondents in the petition.

The petitioner contended that under Article 184(1) 184(2) and 184(3) of the constitution the apex court was empowered to decide disputes between two or more governments, i.e. provincial or federal.

He also suggested that the federal government was competent to request the Chief Justice of Pakistan to appoint an arbitrator to settle disputes between provinces.

The resolutions adopted by the provincial assemblies against the dam were only meant to extend their political agenda instead of strengthening national cohesion. This, the petitioner argued, was evident from the fact that none of these assemblies bothered to file a complaint before the CCI under Article 155 (complaints as to interference with water supplies).

Iqbal Haider alleged that different political, religious and ethnic groups were exploiting the dam issue ever since the federal government had decided to build new reservoir to meet future water needs.

The respondents, the petitioner pleaded, were deliberately misleading innocent and peaceful people by creating controversy over construction of dam promote hatred among the four provinces. They had also given strike calls and held demonstrations to create law and order situation in their respective provinces. They, in fact were trying to divide the nation, he alleged.

He pleaded that the apex court had wide jurisdiction to interpret different articles of the constitution involved in the controversy.

[url]http://www.dawn.com/2005/12/24/top13.htm[/url]

[B][I]Dam to benefit peasants of Sindh: Musharraf[/I][/B]

By Our Correspondent

HYDERABAD, Dec 23: Stressing the need for building more water reservoirs, President General Pervez Musharraf has said that peasants of the provence will the man beneficiaries. He also said that every village in the country would get electricity 2007 under a Wapda plan.

He was addressing a select gathering of students, youths and growers at the circuit house here on Friday.

Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad and Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim were present on the occasion.

He linked building of reservoirs with welfare of peasants whose life depended on their land and who constituted 70 per cent of Sindh’s population.

“I will be the last person to harm Sindh since I am a Sindhi and I cannot take anti-Sindh decisions. I am here to give you something”, he said.

He said that at times leaders had to change path of directions in order to set new trends.

“True leader is not a person who swims with the current but who changes the wrong path with his conviction”, he said.

He said he was in fact interested in wellbeing of peasants in order to save them from destruction.

He said that by 2020 water shortage would be recorded at 15 to 20 MAF on account of increasing agricultural demands.

“There is no need to get emotional because the peasants of Sindh would suffer in the absence of water reservoirs”, he said.

He said he knew that sea erosion had destroyed land in Thatta due to non-release of water Kotri downstream.

He said water could only be released downstream when there was water storage.

He said that monsoon season subsoil water in Sindh was saline while in Punjab it was sweat and farmers could use tube-wells even if canals remain non-perennial.

He said the construction of reservoirs would permanently control the release of water at downstream Kotri so that Thatta and Badin could get water throughout the year.

He said that the building of Skardu dam would submerge forts, being restored by Prince Karim Aga Khan, but the Kalabagh dam could get water from the Kabul, Chitral, Swat, Soan and Haro rivers.

“You can take 10 guarantees at a time, either constitutional, judicial or administrative, and even Sindhi engineers can be made in-charge of the dams”, he suggested.

He said that he encouraged Sindhi youths to join army and now 80,000 Sindhis were serving in the army.

[url]http://www.dawn.com/2005/12/24/nat15.htm[/url]

.....
 

[B][I]PPP to hold anti-dam rally in Pir-jo-Goth[/I][/B]

By Our Correspondent

KHAIRPUR, Dec 23: The People’s Party Parliamentarians has announced that it will hold a rally against the Kalabagh dam in Pir-Jo-Goth, the native town of Pir Pagara. The announcement was made by former district nazim Nafisa Shah while talking to newsmen here on Friday.

She said the rally would be held in collaboration with nationalist parties to prove that people were against the dam.

Ms Shah said Pir Pagara’s support for the controversial dam showed that he did not want unity of the federation.

She said the Pir’s stance represented views of only a handful of people while an absolute majority of Sindh was against dams on the Indus River.

She said the campaign run by President Gen Pervez Musharraf and some federal ministers to gain support for Kalabagh dam was an insult to the people of three provinces.

She said as per the Constitution, no project could be undertaken without consensus.

She appreciated the Pakistan People’s Party Punjab for holding anti-Kalabagh dam protests in the province.

She said major political parties of the country, the PPP, Pakistan Muslim League-N and Tehrik-i-Insaf, had also opposed the Kalabagh dam.

Ms Shah said the view of the Sindh cabinet was still not clear about the dam issue.

[url]http://www.dawn.com/2005/12/24/nat17.htm[/url]

.....
 

[B][I]Technical committee likely to back Skardu dam[/I][/B]

By Khaleeq Kiani

ISLAMABAD, : The Senate's technical committee on water resources is reported to have observed in its report that the Skardu-Katzara dam is the only viable option owing to lack of consensus on other big dams, like Kalabagh and Bhasha, it is learnt.

Informed sources told Dawn that the report is named after ANG Abbasi who will submit it before the Senate, but it will include diverging views of all members of the committee.

The report, the sources said, had sought reactivation of the Council of Common Interest (CCI), which is the only constitutional forum to decide inter-provincial disputes, and whose absence had politicised and made major water-storage projects controversial.

The sources said that the committee, in the report, had admitted that it had not been able to forge consensus on prioritizing the future dams, total water availability, distribution of water among the provinces, operations of link canals and filling criteria for dams. All these issues, the report says, can be resolved at the CCI level.

The committee, sources said, has held that notwithstanding some defence considerations, the Skardu dam, with 35 million acre feet (maf) storage capacity, can best store the water of "supper-flood" which traditionally comes once in a decade and that could be conserved by no other dam including Kalabagh and Bhasha.

It could irrigate, primarily through gravity flow, the whole of Pakistan, including Balochistan, Thar and Cholistan deserts, and its construction would amount to implementation of 90 per cent of the 1991 Water Accord and help eradicate poverty in vast parts of the country. However, it would submerge whole of Skardu and a lot of underground and surface defence facilities, the report has added.

Although the project is a part of Wapda's vision-2025, its construction and resettlement cost is yet to be ascertained. A study on its technical details and merits and demerits is likely to be available by the end of 2005. Skardu dam would have a long storage life of about 1,000 years.

On the other hand, Kalabagh dam would have a storage capacity of 6.1maf and a power generation capacity of 3,600mw. Its feasibility study and design are complete.

The Bhasha dam would have a storage capacity of 7.3maf and power generation capacity of 4,500mw. Both Kalabagh and Bhasha, with storage capacity between 6maf and 7maf, could cater for carry-over needs for one year only and not the once-in-a-decade supper floods, the report, according to sources, says.

They said Mr Abbasi had been under pressure from some intelligence agencies and he had recently brought this to the notice of President General Pervez Musharraf. The president, the sources said, had asked Mr Abbasi to complete his professional job without any pressure or fear.

The sources said the president had recently told a group of Pakistan Muslim League legislators that he had gathered, from his own sources, that Kalabagh dam had the support of seven members of the nine-member Senate's committee on water resources.

One of these parliamentarians, requesting anonymity, told Dawn that the president could attach top priority to Kalabagh dam, followed by Bhasha dam, on the basis of majority vote in the technical committeeand supported by the Senator Nisar Memon-led parliamentary committee on water resources. The two reports would also be presented before the parliament for debate, he said.

The final report of the Senate's committee would also mention a [B]Pakistan Meteorological Department report which predicts fast depletion of Himalayan glaciers in the next 25 years and suggests construction of a big dam that could be used as a long-term carry over dam with a capacity to feed agriculture for a longer period. [/B]

[url]http://www.dawn.com/2005/02/19/top5.htm[/url]

[B]WAPDA’s conduct on dams[/B]

Engr Fateh Ullah Khan

[B]Despite being a Federal agency WAPDA has displayed a parochial attitude on Kalabagh Dam. It has also adopted a non-professional attitude on the planning and investigations of Katzarah Dam, Akhori Dam, Basha Dam and Skardu Dam. Wrong planning and insular investigations of dams have therefore destroyed the achievement of optimum potential of water and power resource. The world’s third largest reservoir dam at Katzarah with storage capacity of 35-maf is intentionally mishandled in desk studies in spite of the fact that the President has approved to conduct its detailed pre-feasibility report. Its name is also changed to Skardu Dam and its storage capacity is shown as 5.2 maf against 35-maf as reported by Dr Pieter Lieftnick in 1968 and by this scribe in 1962. Due to parochial attitude, dams are wrongly and randomly planned by WAPDA to fulfil provincial cravings.[/B]

The 30-year-old controversy and obstinacy on Kalabagh Dam is an ugly example followed by another example of naming Katzarah as Skardu and drastically showing its reduced potential on the basis of wrong desk studies. Similarly, WAPDA never thought of finding an alternative dam site to Kalabagh but obstinately wasted 30 years of most precious time in status quo since 1974. Politics in dams has been introduced, creating a water and power crises. Excellent dam sites are purposely discredited on false pretext under the so-called desk studies by charlatans, thereby misleading the Federal Government and the provinces and prolonging disputes among them and creating shortage of water and power. The Federal Ministry has no source to get second opinion on WAPDA’s wrong project planning concepts and fraudulent reporting, therefore the Ministry as policy-maker follows what WAPDA dictates and as a result the provinces suffer. The Government may, therefore, study the conduct of WAPDA on 5 dams under consideration besides the two drainage projects of SCARPs and NDP that failed and caused losses of billions of dollars. Wrong planning of water resources is creating famine-like conditions in the country.

The 35-maf "Katzarah Dam" is the world’s third largest reservoir dam on the Indus. This dam site is discovered and named after the village Katzarah by this scribe in 1962 and was confirmed by Dr Pieter Lieftnick in 1968 in his report on page 144. Out of shear jealousy and undue support to the hydraulically infeasible Kalabagh Dam, WAPDA intentionally changed the name of 35-maf Katzarah Dam site as Skardu Dam and thus drastically reduced its optimum potential of 35-maf of storage capability to 5.2 maf. This is recently shown by WAPDA on a map to misguide the provinces and the Ministry after I pointed out this unique dam to the Parliamentary Committee headed by Senator Nisar Ahmad Memon in a meeting held by him at Peshawar and at Islamabad. This dam was officially pointed out to all concerned when I was Chairman IRSA in 1994. It was also published in the press on numerous occasions. The fact is that Skardu Dam site is 22 km on the up stream of Katzarah Dam site. The trick of renaming the dam and showing its extremely reduced potentials is going to destroy the unique water and power resources to be accrued from Katzarah Dam. This is because WAPDA feels embarrassed for failing to discover such a unique dam. The actual Skardu Dam site as selected by the World Bank Consultant Team is described below.

The World Bank Consultants headed by Dr Pieter Lieftnick in 1968 had already fixed the Skardu Dam site. It is immediately downstream of the confluence of Shigar River with the Indus River about 4 km upstream of the town of Skardu. (Refer to Dr Pieter Lieftnick report volume-I, page 283 as proof). Again, refer to page 296 of the same report where the height of Skardu Dam at this site is shown as 310 feet, its length is 3700 feet and storage capacity as 8-maf. This documentary fact clearly shows that WAPDA is not giving a true picture on dam sites and on their potential.

Had WAPDA built Katzarah Dam earlier in 1962 it would have served as a carryover storage and its storage would have helped the current hydrological drought as in 1994 about 92 maf of water was wasted to sea.

Katzarah Dam due to its unique storage would serve as a development dam, replacement dam, inter-seasonal dam, Indus River regulation dam, carryover dam, power generation dam, flood control dam, irrigation dam and poverty alleviation dam. All other dams with very low storage capacity like Kalabagh, Akhori, Basha and Skardu are only replacement dams to replace storage lost due to silting of Tarbela and Mangla.

Katzarah Dam can irrigate about 10 million acres of barren lands in the four provinces including the area of Thar Desert through the proposed All Pakistan Grand Canal off taking on the Right Bank of the Indus from a new barrage to be located below Chashma barrage.

But WAPDA has determined not to build any dam on the main stem of the Indus in spite of the fact that it has potential for developing about 40,000 MW of hydropower and storage capacity of about 75 maf of water. Therefore, WAPDA has adopted false plea that transportation facilities are not available to build Basha, Katzarah and Skardu Dams. But this wrong plea has been contradicted by no less a person than the Chairman NHA himself. He declared that the road is capable of transporting all kinds of machinery to the dam site at Basha and Katzarah. WAPDA’s negative conduct on dams on the main stem of the Indus is not in national interest. The highhandedness of WAPDA can be judged that M/S Shahzad International LTD Islamabad has offered to prepare free of cost pre-feasibility of Katzarah Dam with the help of Chinese experts. But WAPDA surprisingly refused the free offer when it was made known by the Secretary Water and Power in a big meeting with the Parliamentary Committee on Water Resources. The intention behind the refusal was to conduct feasibility by WAPDA under its own direct control so as to minimise the unique potential of Katzarah Dam and confuse it with Skardu Dam. Actually this has happened, as Katzarah Dam is named as Skardu Dam and its storage is shown in three colours on a map marking it as reservoir 1, 2 and 3 with storage capacities as 5 maf, 8 maf and 20 maf. At the same time WAPDA created panic spreading remarks that the entire Skardu valley will be destroyed. It did not mention its unique merits. WAPDA has intentionally carried out wrong and misleading desk studies instead of detailed pre-feasibility to hide the great potentials of Katzarah. WAPDA should have conducted pre-feasibility studies through some reputed foreign consultants as this study was approved and desired by the President himself.

WAPDA and Punjab want Kalabagh Dam by hook or by crook. WAPDA should realise that Punjab and Sindh each would get 13 maf of water as their share in 35-maf of Katzarah storage. NWFP will get about 4.9 maf and Balochistan about 4.2 maf of water. In spite of all this WAPDA has only two specific choices. First choice is Kalabagh and the second is Akhori. IRSA and the World Bank Consultants rejected both these dams on technical grounds respectively.

There is no problem with Basha Dam. However, if compared to the 35-maf Katzarah Dam, its storage is only 7-maf of water nearly at the same cost. In such a situation Katzarah Dam must be given preference. However, under the circumstances Katzarah and Basha both must start simultaneously.

Similarly, there is no problem with 8-maf Skardu Dam located on the downstream of the confluence of Shigar River with Indus River about 4 km upstream of Skardu town. However, Skardu Dam would be submerged and overlapped by the construction of 35-maf Katzarah Dam located 22 km away from the site of Skardu Dam.

[url]http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/oct2...004/oped/o5.htm[/url]

...
 

[B]Skardu dam[/B]

[I]Recipe for disaster[/I]

M Ismail Khan

Politics may be the art of the possible, but apparently not as far as Pakistani politicians are concerned. The technical committee on water resources in the Senate of Pakistan, reportedly, is set to unfold another impossible dam proposal which recommends construction of the world's largest water reservoir, that too on the roof of the world.

The proposed Skardu Dam with estimated water storage capacity of 35 million acre feet (maf) will submerge all of Skardu, capital of Baltistan or Little Tibet in the Northern Areas. An outburst or accident of a high altitude dam of this magnitude once unleashed can effectively affect all major cities of the country, including Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi into the Arabian Sea.[B]

It seems that the senate's technical committee, particularly A.N.G. Abbassi, [B]has bought the idea being promoted by a bunch of misguided civil engineers, mostly from NWFP, who have been advocating the construction of Skardu dam, which would involve lucrative mega projects and also take the heat off from controversies generated by the Kalabagh and Basha dams. Whatever be the implicit motives, what is clear that these people have little knowledge and understanding about mountain ecology, environment and natural heritage.

They are also dangerously blank on Pakistan's long-term strategic interests. Otherwise, how could they propose the construction of such a huge water reservoir within the artillery firing range of a hot border? It will take less than a minute of flight time for an Indian aircraft to approach the proposed dam. Skardu is the most porous valley in the Northern Areas that provides for defence facilities including the vital airbase and military command and control hub for protection of the critical Pakistan-China road link, and maintenance of the status quo in Gultari, Ladakh and Siachan sectors. There is no other potential or alternate military base to replace Skardu.

On the other hand Skardu valley, capital of Baltistan, has its own unique ecological, cultural and environmental significance. Sandwiched between one of the world's highest plateaus Deosai and the largest naturally formed glacier outside the poles, Skardu is the historical seat of the Balti Kingdom, and the hub of the Balti cultural heritage. The dusty town dotted around with an amazing mix of lakes, sand dunes, streams, snow-clad mountains and terraced fields and orchards, serves as cultural melting pot of the Balti people. It is the life-line of the over 300,000 Baltis sparsely populated in numerous valleys who already face multiple challenges as an ethnic minority in the religiously radicalised social scene of the country.

Situated amidst the world's newest and the most fragile mountain system, which is prone to earthquakes and other natural calamities, a 35 million acre feet dam in the heart of Karakoram will be nothing but a recipe for disaster. One doesn't even need to be a geologist, glaciologist or climate change expert to realise that a minor shift in the hydrological cycle due to permanent storage of a large water body can play havoc with the sensitive mountain ecology. Imagine the situation if a dam outburst of such magnitude starts rushing down to the hills of NWFP and plains of Punjab and Sindh. The gravity flow triggered by thousands of meters high tsunami-like waves can be disastrous for the entire country. The water reservoir being proposed by the honourable senators can thus potentially imperil the very existence of Pakistan and make it vulnerable to a super mega flood.

It is also evident that the moisture and climatic effects generated by a massive water body will hasten the melting process of the glaciers thus raising possibilities for massive glacier outbursts. Let us not forget the tragedy triggered by the outburst of a very humble dam in Pasni, Balochistan during the recent rains.

But when it comes to planning sensitive issues like water, one can expect anything from the desperate souls in Islamabad. In 2001 for instance, a Food Minister from Sindh made an even more foolish proposal. He called for the bombing of Baltoro and Hisper glaciers to overcome the water shortage downstream; some federal ministries went actually passed the proposal to the ministry of science and technology for comments, which in turn shared the ideas with the country's famous nuclear scientists. It was only after a spontaneous backlash of the Northern Area's media and civil society groups that the proposal was shelved. It would have been like killing the chicken that lays golden eggs.

Skardu valley is the gateway to most of the famous mountaineering expeditions to central Karakoram --home to K2 -- second highest point on Earth, known among mountaineers around the world as the 'throne room of the mountain gods'. In the late 1990s UNESCO considered including the area in the World Heritage Site (WHS) list, but this was deferred due to Indian objections citing the disputed nature of the territory! This would have been the first natural heritage from Pakistan in the prestigious list; the WHS list includes natural sites located in India and Nepal.

If Islamabad has a hard time selling the idea of Kalabagh and Bhasha dams to a national audience, think of the Indian reaction and the global feedback that a proposal about submerging Skardu could provoke. Senator A.N.G. Abbassi's recommendations (reported on Feb 19, 2005) seek the reactivation of the Council of Common Interest (CCI), which is a constitutional forum to decide inter-provincial disputes. However, Northern Areas is neither a province of Pakistan, nor part of the CCI; it has no representation in the Senate, or the National Assembly or the assemblies of divided Kashmir in the name of which the Northern Areas status has been kept in limbo for the last 57 years.

Since Northern Areas are not a federating unit, we will have to wait and see on what constitutional and moral grounds do ANG Abbassi and his colleagues in Senate and the so-called CCI stand on the Skardu dam? Have they consulted people in the Northern Areas on the issue, they are definitely equipped to bulldoze and subdue the already poor and marginalised Baltis in Skardu, but I wonder if they have the mettle to go against the common sense, against nature, against the world and more importantly against Pakistan's own strategic interest?

[url]http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/mar2...005/oped/o3.htm[/url]

Some facts:
 

[B]Efforts stressed to evolve consensus: Govt not focused on Kalabagh dam: Aziz[/B]

By Ismail Khan

PESHAWAR, Dec 24: Calling for a national debate on the need of water reservoirs in the country, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Saturday warned that time was running out and doing nothing was not an option.

“Time is running out. Doing nothing is not an option. We need to galvanize our efforts to evolve consensus. We all are Pakistanis and any decision to be taken would be in the best national interest,” he told a press conference at the end of his day-long visit to Peshawar.

Mr Aziz had had a meeting with NWFP Chief Minister Akram Durrani and Governor Khalilur Rehman and also attended a meeting of the provincial cabinet.

The prime minister dispelled the impression that the government had made up its mind on the construction of Kalabagh dam, when a reporter drew his attention to statements by President Gen Pervez Musharraf advocating for Kalabagh dam.

“Everybody should express his views. This is the essence of democracy. There should be debate and consensus. The president has been talking about water reservoirs and Kalabagh is one option,” he said.

A cabinet member said the prime minister spoke in general terms about the need for the construction of water reservoirs in the country without being specific about any dam. “He was not particular about Kalabagh dam. He was sort of non-committal,” the minister told Dawn.

Prime Minister Aziz said he had offered to send a team of experts from the federal government to sit and discuss with the NWFP government and brief it on different options available. “Ask them any question you want,” he was quoted as telling Mr Durrani and his cabinet.

Appreciating the offer, the chief minister said his government had drawn a report on the controversial dam and would like to discuss the project with experts from the federal government.

Mr Aziz said that Pakistan presently faced 9 Million Acre Feet (MAF) water shortage, which would increase to 30MAF in 2025.

He said that sedimentation of existing dams was also contributing to water shortage, adding that by 2010 6MAF less water would be available because of silting alone. He pointed out that Pakistan had the potential to cultivate 77 million acres, but could cultivate only 44 million acres due to water shortage.
He promised to make public all reports, including the report of the technical committee headed by A.N.G Abbasi that has declared Skardu-Katzarah as the best option followed by Bhasha dam.

He said that reports of the parliamentary committee on water reservoirs and downstream Kotri Barrage would also be made public to help initiate public debate and evolve consensus on the issue.

Mr Aziz said that the issue would also be debated in parliament and a decision would be taken in the best national interest.

He referred to a report on global warming and its effects on Pakistan by renowned scientist Dr Ishfaq and said that the country needed to build water storages to cope with floods caused by melting glaciers. “The report is quite troublesome.”

On the president’s statement that construction of new dams and the National Finance Commission Award would be announced together, Mr Aziz said that provincial governments had authorized the president to make the announcement after failing to reach consensus on the issue.

Mr Aziz said that the federal government had included development projects worth Rs16.6 billion for the NWFP in the next Public Sector Development Programme, including funds for Lowari Tunnel, Gomal Zam dam, Peshawar-Islamabad Motorway and Peshawar Bypass and Peshawar-Torkham Expressway.

He said the federal government was setting up laboratories all over the country to check potable water on a three-month basis to ensure the provision of clean drinking water to people and control water-born diseases, including hepatitis.

APP adds: Addressing a meeting of MNAs, senators, MPAs and office-bearers of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League, district nazims and tribal elders, the prime minister asked how an elected government could go against the interest of the country and said that every decision of the government would be in the larger interest of the people and the state.

He asked the PML leaders to chalk out a strategy to mould public opinion in favour of big water reservoirs to ensure sustainable development of the economy.

[B]The prime minister said that various options were currently under consideration, including Kalabagh, Bhasha, Skardu, Akhori, Kurram Tangi and Munda, to meet the water shortfall which the country might face in a couple of years.

Every year, he said, 30-32MAF water fell into the sea as the country had no reservoirs to store it.[/B]

[url]http://www.dawn.com/2005/12/25/top2.htm[/url]

[B]Kalabagh dam’s life less than 15 years: expert[/B]

By Our Staff Reporter

ISLAMABAD, Dec 24: [B]Former chairman of the Indus River System Authority (Irsa) Engineer Fatehullah Khan Gandapur has said the life of the proposed Kalabagh dam will be less than 15 years and it will not play any part in improving the country’s agricultural production. [/B](Irresponsible statement cause he did not quote any study or report in his favor. When you make such statements, you need to quote a study or some report to be credible)

The former Irsa chief was speaking at a briefing on the Kalabagh dam project for the local leadership of the People’s Party Parliamentarians at the party’s central secretariat here on Saturday, says a press release.

Mr Gandapur said international experts had already rejected the project. He said the dam would be detrimental to the interests of smaller provinces. There are several alternative projects available which should be explored, he added.

Speaking on the occasion, PPP President Makhdoom Amin Fahim said Kalabagh dam project was a conspiracy against the federation and an effort to create hatred against Punjab. “This is a play to hide government’s failure at every level,” he added.

The briefing was attended by MNAs Zamarud Khan, Fauzia Habib and Nayyar Bokhari, MPA Amir Fida Piracha and party leaders Agha Riazul Islam, Syed Abrar Rizvi, Nargis Faiz Malik, Sardar Salim and others.

The meeting passed resolutions demanding that the government should shelve the project and consider alternative projects.

The PPP leaders expressed their resolve to resist Kalabagh dam at any cost and to pay sacrifices for the rights of the people.

Meanwhile, PPP spokesman Senator Farhatullah Babar in a statement said the assertion that Benazir Bhutto had ever supported the Kalabagh dam was totally wrong.

He said the fact was that there was a proposal by certain elements about an Indus dam. “This was dismissed by the PPP government when it was found that it was nothing but the Kalabagh dam renamed,” he said.

Moreover, he said, no presentation was made to the then prime minister, Ms Bhutto, demonstrating that building a dam at Kalabagh was technically feasible.

[url]http://www.dawn.com/2005/12/25/nat9.htm[/url]

political....
 

[B]Kalabagh in country’s interest, says Jamali[/B]

Dera Murad Jamali, Dec 24: Former prime minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali on Saturday said that the construction of Kalabagh dam was in the interest of the national economy and the issue should not be politicized. Talking to a TV channel, Mr Jamali said he would support every step which would be in favour of Pakistan. The country, he emphasized, needed water reservoirs, including the Kalabagh dam.

In reply to a question, he said consensus on Kalabagh dam was required as the issue was being politicized.

“We are supporting the construction of Kalabagh dam since 1985 in order to cope with up water shortage in the country,” he added.—PPI

[url]http://www.dawn.com/2005/12/25/nat10.htm[/url]

more politics...
 

[B]Dam issue a conspiracy against Musharraf’[/B]

By Our Staff Reporter

LAHORE, Dec 24: Exiled MQM leader Altaf Husain says raising of the Kalabagh Dam issue at this time is a conspiracy against Gen Musharraf. He was speaking to reporters by phone from London on the inauguration of party’s provincial office here on Saturday.

MQM deputy parliamentary leader Dr Farooq Sattar, federal minister Syed Safwanullah, Omar Draz and other leaders were also present.

Mr Husain said he would stand by the general on the issue only if he managed to get the three provinces agreed on the project, wondering why the ruler in Islamabad was so resolute on the subject.

He saw a few generals and big landowners in Punjab behind the “conspiracy” against Gen Musharraf who, he said, must understand it and should not follow their advice.

He alleged that prominent Sindhi leader Pir Pagaro was on the payroll of the government and that’s why he was supporting the project.

He said all the projects were part of Pakistan and no step should be taken without taking them into confidence.

He alleged that a right wing students organization forced him to give up his studies and he formed a body to counter them.

He said feudal lords were befooling Punjabis and they would never allow the poor of this province to express their opinion independently.

The MQM leader denied that he or his organization was involved in the Jinahpur conspiracy. He alleged that one Brig Asif Haroon had fabricated the story and prepared bogus maps of the so-called independent state.

He said he was ready to accept death penalty if his assertion proved as wrong.

He announced that he would not accept any higher office even if his party came into power.

Urging Punjabis not to befooled in the name of Islam, Mr Husain said he was a friend of Punjab and “a friend is he who points out mistakes of his friend.”

[url]http://www.dawn.com/2005/12/25/nat16.htm[/url]

and more politics...
 

[B]Civil groups criticize dam plan[/B]
Bureau Report

PESHAWAR, Dec 24: [B]Teachers, students, doctors and political organizations have rejected the Kalabagh dam plan and termed it an organized destruction of the Pukhtun nation.[/B] ([I]oh sure!) [/I]In separate meetings held here on Saturday, they called upon the people to shun their petty differences and forge unity against the construction of controversial dam.

A meeting of Malgari Ustadhan, presided over by its president Islamuddin Khan, was held at the Bacha Khan Markaz. A resolution was adopted against the Kalabagh dam.

Awami National Party provincial general secretary Mian Iftikhar Hussain, vice-president Imran Khan Afridi, information secretary Syed Aqil Shah and other ANP leaders attend the meeting.

Mian Iftikhar urged his party workers to take part in the anti-Kalabagh dam rally on Dec 29 in Jehangira.

A meeting of the Malgari Doctrans, presided over by its president Dr Mohammad Salim, denounced the construction of the controversial dam and decided to attend the anti-dam rally. A medical camp would be set up on the day to provide treatment to the people.

The Pukhtun Students Federation and People’s Students Federation announced that their workers would attend the rally.

The Pukhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party has asked its workers to attend the anti-Kalabagh dam rally and express solidarity with the nation.

[url]http://www.dawn.com/2005/12/25/nat23.htm[/url]

[B][I]Shahbaz Sharif terms Kalabagh Dam as need of country [/I][/B]

NEW JERSEY: Former Chief Minister of Punjab Mian Shahbaz Sharif has backed the construction of Kalabagh Dam.

In his telephonic address in a function organized to celebrate Mian Nawaz Sharif’s birthday, Shahbaz said that country needs more water reservoirs and Kalabagh Dam should be build on immediate basis. Some parties politicize the issue, which is wrong, he added.

Former Chief Minister Punjab urged consensus on the issue. He stated that Mian Nawaz Sharif also is in favour of construction of Kalabagh Dam.

SOURCE:[url]http://www.geo.tv/geonews/details.asp?id=99776[/url]

Whither, once again, beloved Punjab?

By Ayaz Amir

BEAUTIFUL Punjab, fair land of the five immortal rivers (three of them since gifted by a military ruler to India), why, when so generous of heart, do you prove time and again so weak of understanding?

When you have so much to offer why are you so poorly served by those who claim to lead you? What vengeful fate brings you the poisoned gift of third-rate leadership?

Land of Waris Shah and Shah Hussain (their memories hallowed till the end of time), why, unwittingly, do you end up stoking burning resentment when, with all your heaven-bestowed advantages, you should be spreading tenderness and love?

Of all the lands which came together to form Pakistan, why must you always be the first to welcome every man on horseback who contrives to turn the country (not a small one, mind you) into an instrument of his will and pleasure?

You have the gift of enterprise and industry. There’s no corner of the world where the Punjabi has not ventured or is not to be found. Why did your good fairies deprive you of the ability to differentiate right from wrong and stand up for the right?

When East Pakistan bled you kept quiet. Indeed, to your lasting shame, you sided with the forces of oppression. When there was a movement in rural Sindh against the excesses of the Zia regime (1983), you made token noises of support but kept largely to yourself. Baloch gas lights your kitchen fires and keeps you warm in winter. Yet when Balochistan bled (1973-75) you were indifferent to its fate. When again the sounds of conflict are coming from that quarter you are silent.

Your capital, Lahore, was one of the great cities of the Mughal Empire, one of the great north Indian cities even under British rule, its cultural life more vibrant than anything to be seen in Delhi. Lahore, if true to its historic greatness, should have been Pakistan’s new frontier, fermenting-ground of new ideas. It has been just the opposite, the crucible of a narrow ideology. Of what good this ideology has been to Punjab it is hard to say. But for the rest of Pakistan it has been a permanent headache.

So no surprises when we consider that all the obscurantist winds to blow across the national landscape these past 50 odd years have arisen, in the first instance, from Punjab. In the light of this history it is at times hard to remember that this is the land of Waris Shah and Shah Hussain. Where Punjab should be Pakistan’s greatest unifying force, through generosity and wisdom the magnet drawing every other province to itself, the history of the last fifty years emphasizes its power to repel rather than attract.

Economic factors have brought the Frontier province closer to Punjab, in the process eliminating the more virulent manifestations of Pakhtoon nationalism. This is one of the good things to have happened since 1947. But the same cannot be said of Sindh and Balochistan where a sullen mood prevails. Lessening this mood of alienation should have been one of our foremost national priorities. Instead, six years of military rule have only made it worse.

As if that wasn’t enough, Islamabad’s sense of timing is always calculated to leave one speechless with amazement. When does Gen Musharraf choose to stoke up the embers of the Kalabagh controversy? Smack in December, the very month when Pakistan was dismembered 34 years ago. When do army helicopter gunships re-enact old scenes of strife and conflict in Balochistan? Again in December. No one can fault Islamabad with having a sense of history.

The general’s latest take on the situation is that he won’t allow Sindh to commit suicide. The people of Sindh should be grateful. Instead, they are likely to be alarmed out of their senses by this sweeping generosity. You can’t blame them. Many times bitten, they have ample reason to be constantly shy and cynical.

Islamabad and its chosen minions — like the information minister Shaikh Rashid and the parliamentary affairs minister, the one and only Sher Afgan — are injecting a lot of hot air into the atmosphere. We know what their priority is: playing to the president’s ear. If today the president were to say that for the sake of national unity he must also become chief justice of Pakistan, these same spokesmen will say wah, wah and applaud his wisdom.

We need an informed debate, not needless bluster. In all the heat generated by the Kalabagh controversy no one has been able to answer Sindh’s fears that the proposed Kalabagh dam will deprive it of its share of water from the Indus, its only lifeline.

Punjab has two rivers, Jhelum and Chenab, for its exclusive use while through the Indus Basin Treaty system of canals it also draws its share of water from the Indus. Sindh only has the Indus, no other river. When Gen Musharraf or the Water and Power Authority (Wapda) say that unless large water reservoirs are built, Pakistan will face drought-like conditions in the next ten years or so, the obvious implication is that water stored at Kalabagh, besides generating power, will also be used for irrigation purposes.

Well, let’s do a bit of map-reading. Kalabagh is in the upper reaches of Punjab. A right bank canal from there will benefit the Frontier (its southern districts). A left bank canal can only benefit Punjab. In any case, water drawn from Kalabagh for irrigation will mean lesser water flowing down the Indus. Which is precisely Sindh’s point that, as it is, there is less water in the Indus and if more is taken away, Sindh will be left with even less, thus violating its rights as the lower riparian with first call on the waters of the Indus.

With these facts stacked on one side it strains the imagination to believe, as the federal government desperately wants everyone in Pakistan to believe, that Sindh will benefit the most from the Kalabagh dam. The sums just don’t add up.

No one defies authority readily in Pakistan. We are just not made that way. So we in Punjab and Islamabad — Islamabad being Punjab in distilled form — should pause and ponder why everyone in Sindh, from the ruling coalition to the PPP to the MQM and even the Pir of Pagara, the quintessential establishment man, is opposed to the Kalabagh dam. Either the whole of Sindh has gone mad, in which case Gen Musharraf before attempting to save Sindh from committing suicide should provide it with urgent psychiatric help, or the centre must re-examine its assumptions.

Punjab likes to think of itself as the big brother of the Pakistan federation. By virtue of population and productivity it is. By virtue of any wisdom or large-heartedness at its command it is not. If Punjab really is big brother, it shouldn’t leave Sindh alone in its hour of distress. Rather than let Sindh cry itself hoarse over Kalabagh, Punjab should be voicing Sindh’s agony, Punjab which should be confronting the centre on this issue.

Indeed, Punjab should go a step further and say: enough of these games, enough of divisions fanned in the name of fake, spurious ideologies. We tried to keep the federation together by force in 1971 and look what happened. We should learn something from our reverses instead of making a habit of repeating them. Haven’t we suffered enough because of foolish policies in the past?

With the army stretched to the full in both Waziristans, a full-fledged military operation underway in the Kohlu area of Balochistan, never-ending curfews in Gilgit, the stupendous task of quake relief and rehabilitation still only half-begun, you would think this was not the time to open new fronts.

And certainly not the time to remain committed to building a huge new behemoth of an army headquarters (GHQ) in Islamabad; buy early-warning aircraft from Sweden; and go ahead with the purchase of two luxury aircraft for the prime minister’s travelling. A Senate committee had earlier voted against this last piece of foolishness. Lo and behold, under pressure from only God knows who, it has reversed its decision and re-voted in favour of the luxury jets. Obviously, there’s no early end in sight to the follies generated regularly in Islamabad.

These are the wages of tiredness. After six years and some more in the saddle, all the signs suggest that the present dispensation has overshot its script and has nothing more to say. So how does it justify its quest for longevity? Which probably explains why a controversy we might have been forgiven for thinking was dead and buried, has been revived as a national rallying cry.

Source: Dawn Online Edition December 23, 2005

[B]Students to hold demos against Kalabagh dam[/B]

By Our Correspondent

PESHAWAR, Dec 26: The Pakhtunkhwa Students Organisation (PSO) will hold countrywide demonstrations against the construction of Kalabagh dam. PSO’s central secretary general Hameed Ali Shah made this announcement at a press conference here on Monday.

He said that students would also participate in the December 29 rally arranged by the Awami National Party.

He claimed that dozens of alternatives to Kalabagh were available but they were not being examined because “they were not likely to bring water of the Abbasin (Indus river) under the direct control of the Punjab”, he said, adding that Kalabagh dam was not meant to be a reservoir but a project to control the flow of the Indus.

Fayaz Bacha, an office bearer of the PSO, said 1971-like situation was being created wilfully to divert attention of the masses from issues like military operations in different parts of the country.

He said that the president need not take pains of elaborating pros and cons of the controversial project because people of the NWFP and Sindh knew what was beneficial for them.

[url]http://www.dawn.com/2005/12/27/nat33.htm[/url]

[B]Reservoirs in national interest: Pervaiz[/B]

By Our Staff Reporter

LAHORE, Dec 26: Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi says construction of big water reservoirs is in the best national interest and not any single province.

Talking to reporters after opening a new hostel at the Lahore Gymkhana on Monday, the chief minister said reservations of political elements of other provinces regarding construction of reservoirs were being removed.

He said Punjab had always given priority to national prestige in every matter, and never thought in regional terms. The fact that it helped politicians from other provinces to lay claim to the office of prime minister was sufficient to prove the assertion, he said.

However, he regretted that the politicians who declared their parties national were talking in regional terms in various provinces.

He recalled that such situation had been created by certain elements when work on Mangla and Tarbela dams was executed, but the projects were now meeting irrigation and power needs of the country.

He said if new dams were not constructed, lands of Punjab, Sindh and other areas would be rendered as barren.

[url]http://www.dawn.com/2005/12/27/nat12.htm[/url]

[B]President has own interest in dam issue, says Tarar[/B]

By Our Staff Reporter

LAHORE, Dec 26: Former president Rafiq Tarar alleged that Gen Musharraf has raised Kalabagh dam issue to prolong his “illegal” stay in presidency. He was speaking at a ceremony organized by PML-N MPA Chaudhry Abdul Ghafoor at Raiwind here on Monday.

Party’s central Secretary-General Iqbal Zafar Jhagra, Finance Secretary MNA Pervaiz Malick, Zaeem Qadri, Saad Rafiq and others also spoke.

Tarar said there were many issues of public welfare which were more important than the dam and needed to be addressed on priority basis. He added stress should not be laid on the project which did not enjoy consensus of all provinces.

He said present national scenario demanded restoration of democracy in real terms.

Mr Jhagra said his party did not accept Gen Musharraf as constitutional head of state while democracy and the parliament also did not exist in the country.
Malick said politicians were responsible for running political affairs of the country and not the army generals. He termed the dam lifeline of the country but said the project could not be executed by Gen Musharraf for “people do not trust him.”

Qadri said the party would demonstrate outside the Lahore Press Club on Wednesday (Dec 28) against army operation in Balochistan.

[url]http://www.dawn.com/2005/12/27/nat11.htm[/url]

[B]TI asks Musharraf to invite Pagara for KBD opening[/B]

By Our Staff Reporter

LAHORE, Dec 26: The Tehrik-i-Istaqlal, one of the staunch supporters of the Kalabagh dam, has suggested President Gen Musharraf to invite PML (Functional) chief Pir Pagaro for laying the foundation-stone of the reservoir.

In a communique to Gen Musharraf, party president Rehmat Khan Wardag hoped the Pir would accept the offer and it would be a great step for quelling opposition to the project in Sindh.

He also urged the army ruler to invite Mir Zafarullah Jamali for a one-on-one meeting to seek the former prime minister’s formal support for the water reservoir.

He believed that Balochs could be convinced to give up opposition by offering their province two or three per cent more share in the Indus waters.

Referring to an anti-dam rally in Karachi last week, he alleged that most of the participants were the poor “hired” for the event who had no affiliations with any political party. (one rule: dont make statements you have no prrof of. That just makes the game more dirty)

He proposed announcement of construction of four small dams while laying foundation-stone of the Kalabagh.

The suitable sites for these proposed reservoirs, according to him, are Munda on the Swat river, and Rahim Yar Khan, Khairpur Meerus and Sehwan Sharif on the Indus.

Khan favoured building of left canal from the Kalabagh dam to irrigate thousands of acres in Dera Ismail Khan, Tonk, Lakki Marwat, Bannu and Kark, the most backward area of the NWFP whose people migrate to other provinces for earning their livelihood.

About the proposed constitutional and legal guarantees for the dam, he said it was a time-consuming process which could be undertaken even after work on Kalabagh was started. (sure sure, get everyone fu*ked up first, then think of the legalities. Typical Pakistani politician)

[url]http://www.dawn.com/2005/12/27/nat10.htm[/url]

[B]Govt advised to take up Bhasha dam[/B]

By Our Correspondent

SWABI, Dec 26: The government should focus on the construction of non-controversial Bhasha dam instead of the controversial Kalabagh dam and take steps which create unity among the people of four provinces. This was stated by leaders of political parties opposed to the construction of Kalabagh dam on Monday.

Former MNA and district president of Awami National Party Rehmanullah said that his party had already made it clear that the construction of Kalabagh was against the interest of three provinces and Balochistan, Sindh and the NWFP Assemblies had already passed anti-Kalabagh resolutions. The ANP’s parliamentary leaders would tender resignations if the government stuck to its guns and went ahead with the project, said Rehmanullah whose son is also an MPA.

He said his party wanted progress and prosperity of the country but not at the cost of the people. “The ANP has prepared a plan for holding anti-Kalabagh rally on Dec 29,” he added.

ANP leader and former district nazim Jehanzeb Khan said that previous governments had also made noises about building the Kalabagh dam but their efforts met with failure. A provincial leader of Pukhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party Arshad Ali advocate said that all the communities in Sindh, Balochistan and the NWFP would suffer harm by the Kalabagh dam which would only benefit the people of Punjab.

“This project would bring together the people and leaders of various political parties on one platform and they would oppose its construction tooth and nail.”

Former provincial information secretary of Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf Asad Qaisar said it seemed that the government wanted to use the Punjab card while influencing the mind of the people of Punjab and preparing the ground for the next general election.

He said it was a political game and the government had a future plan for strengthening its hold on power.

[url]http://www.dawn.com/2005/12/27/nat9.htm[/url]

[B]Media told to play role on dams issue[/B]

RAWALPINDI, Dec 26: Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said on Monday that President General Pervez Musharraf had directed the media to play an active role in creating public awareness about constructing Kalabagh dam and other water reservoirs.

Sheikh Rashid told newsmen here that Sindh Chief Minister Arbab Ghulam Rahim Khan, Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervez Elahi and federal Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Sherpao and other officials attended an important meeting with President General Pervez Musharraf about establishment of Kalabagh dam and various reservoirs in the country.

The meeting lasted for more than three hours and important issues were thoroughly discussed in the meeting.

The information minister said the president had stressed the need for the media to be active and play its role in creating public awareness regarding construction of Kalabagh dam and other water reservoirs in the country.

He said that President Musharraf would soon visit Nawabshah, Mirpurkhas and NWFP and announce the construction of Kalabagh dam very soon.

He said that Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has said from time to time that the government would not take any unilateral decision on the construction of big water reservoirs in the country and would certainly take the provinces into confidence first.
Sheikh Rashid said it was fortunate that there were no problems in provision of funds for development from either the federal government or provincial governments.

He said in the presence of Provincial Minister Muhammad Basharat Raja, Rahat Qadoosi, Nasir Raja and MPA Fayaz Chauhan and other high-ups that development projects would be completed —Online

[url]http://www.dawn.com/2005/12/27/nat4.htm[/url]

[B]Demand to shelve Kalabagh project[/B]

Dawn Report

DADU, Dec 26: A large number of people took out a procession and held a demonstration in Khairpur Nathan Shah on Monday in protest against the proposed construction of the Kalabagh dam.

The protesters included activists of different political parties and social workers. They were led by taluka People’s Party Parliamentarians president Noor Mohammad Chandio, district Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam president Hafiz Hajan and district Jamiat Ulema-i-Pakistan president Hafiz Amin.

The protesters demanded that President Gen Pervez Musharraf should shelve the Kalabagh dam project.

Later, they observed a token hunger strike.

NAUSHAHRO FEROZE: Workers of different political parties on Sunday marched from the Moro town to the Moro-Dadu bridge on the River Indus to protest against the Kalabagh dam.

Around 400 activists of the People’s Party Parliamentarians, Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz, Jeay Sindh Mahaz, Sindh Taraqqi Pasand Party, Sindh National Party, Awami Tehrik, Sindhi Adabi Sangat and the Labour Party of Pakistan participated in the protest.

The procession was led by Sindh LPP general secretary Younus Rahu, Hashim Khoso, poet Rashid Morai, Ali Bux Kalhoro, Agha Hassan, Khan Soomro, Ashraf Bhat, Razzaq Mastoi, Badal Zardari and Talib Rahu.

They said the Kalabagh dam was dangerous for Sindh and its people because they would be deprived of their livelihood after its construction. They warned that people of Sindh would not forgive supporters of the Kalabagh dam.

The PPP-SB also took out a procession in Kandiaro on Sunday against the dam project.

The protesters, led by district party president Zafar Khoso, after marching through different roads reached the Star Chowk where they staged a sit-in for one hour.

[url]http://www.dawn.com/2005/12/27/nat3.htm[/url]

[B]Fudged data being given to president, say experts: Kalabagh dam[/B]

By Our Reporter

ISLAMABAD, Dec 26: The Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) is providing fudged data to President Gen Pervez Musharraf on Kalabagh dam, that is technically, economically and politically unfeasible and poses a threat to the federation.

This was the near consensus of a seminar on “Kalabagh Dam: forcing or forging consensus” organised by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute here on Monday.

Engineer Imtiaz Ali Qazalbash said the dam would cost more than Rs800 billion despite the fact that it had a short life span of 20 to 30 years. He said there were many technical problems in the project, which would displace over 200,000 people in Punjab, NWFP and Sindh.

He said the government was hell-bent on the construction of the Kalabagh dam to the extent that it gave the impression as if there existed only one project. He said the people were being provided wrong information by the government that the dam would cost $6 to $7 billion.

He said the country had many other options for construction of major water reservoirs including Basha, Dasu and Bunji dams, etc.

He said Basha dam was the best option keeping in view its relatively longer life span and less economic cost.

He said according to the Wapda Vision 2025, the country needed water reservoirs but it did not mean that the solution was only Kalabagh dam. He said Wapda and the policy-makers should be a little bit innovative and explore some other options. He said since 1976 the country could not come up with major water reservoirs mainly due to sticking to the Kalabagh dam unnecessarily. He said the government should first construct less controversial dams.

Since 1977, he said, Wapda had ceased to play its role owing to which there was no balance in the thermal and hydro power generation.

Engineer Asif Ali Khan, member of the Pakistan Engineering Counsel, said Pakistan Muslim League was lobbying for a dam which was technically and economically not correct. He said Wapda was feeding fudged statistics to Gen Pervez Musharraf about the social, economic and technically repercussions of Kalabagh dam.

Citing reports of the World Bank and some other independent international consultants, Mr Khan said it would have not been a matter of great concern had the government tried to forge a consensus on the dam in case of some political hindrances. The dangerous thing is that besides technical and economic constraints the government is forcing a consensus.

He said Mardan and Nowshera would be flooded and the Peshawar valley would face water logging and siltation. He said the government was ignoring the public outcry about the project not only in NWFP but in other two provinces, which could create a 197-like scenario in the country.

He said the history of rehabilitation of people displaced due construction of dams and water canals in Pakistan showed that the government had failed to properly compensate and rehabilitate the affected people.

Besides, he said, after the refusal of the federal government to pay to the NWFP billions of rupees outstanding in the forms of electricity charges and usurping of other rights of the provinces the people were convinced that the Constitution was not everything in Pakistan.

[B]He said the 1985 feasibility report on the Kalabagh dam had taken into account an earthquake of less than 4 on the Richter scale. (if thats the case, shelve the Dam NOW! [/B]Where is a new team of independent technical experts doing their reporting for all of us??)

[url]http://www.dawn.com/2005/12/27/nat1.htm[/url]

[B]Consensus must for Kalabagh: Shahbaz[/B]

By Arshad Sharif

London, Dec 26: Pakistan [B]Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) president Shahbaz Sharif on Monday emphasized the need for political consensus about the Kalabagh dam issue and said it could not be sustainable if it threatened the federation’s unity.[/B]

Talking to Dawn, the former Punjab chief minister said: “Without consensus, how can one think of going ahead with a controversial project?”

The PML-N president said Pakistan was a federation and all the four federating units had to be taken on board on the Kalabagh Dam issue.

Mr Shahbaz Sharif said he was convinced of Kalabagh dam’s feasibility. However, he said, during the past 25-30 years, the issue had been politicized to an extent that facts were buried.

“I am speaking as a Pakistani and not as a Punjabi. The Kalabagh dam is not an issue for Punjab alone, but for the entire Pakistan,” he said.

Mr Sharif said feasibilities of the Kalabagh dam would be of no use if they were not politically acceptable to the other federating units. If the federation’s unity was threatened, the rulers must find the solution through dialogue, he said.

In response to a question about the exact arrival date of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in London, the PML-N president said: “He would be here soon.”

[url]http://www.dawn.com/2005/12/27/top4.htm[/url]

[B]Schedule on dams soon, says Musharraf: Guarantees on water outlets pledged[/B]

By Our Staff Reporter

ISLAMABAD, Dec 26: Sindh’s ruling party leadership on Monday advised President Gen Pervez Musharraf to rearrange priorities on the government’s dam construction plan by taking up Bhasha dam first and “a canal-less” Kalabagh dam later. (this actually might be a good way to go)

This advice was given at a meeting presided over by the president on water management.

President Gen Pervez Musharraf told participants that a schedule to construct three dams - Kalabagh, Bhasha and Akhori - by 2020 would be announced very shortly, for which priority had to be set now, to complete at least one dam by 2016, a participant of the meeting told Dawn.

On Monday, President Musharraf chaired two separate meetings on Water Management Vision in his Rawalpindi camp office. Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, PML President Ch. Shujaat Hussain, Mushahid Hussain Syed, ministers for information, water and power, narcotics control, interior, local government, chief ministers of Sindh and Punjab, attorney general of Pakistan, special assistant to prime minister on youth affairs and Sindh minister for irrigation also attended.

In another meeting, Sindh Chief Minister Dr Arbab Rahim, Water and Power Minister Liaquat Jatoi, Narcotics Control Minister Ghaus Bakhsh Mehr, Local Government Minister Abdul Razak Taheem and Sindh Irrigation Minister Nadir Kamal Leghari participated.

Sources said the president told participants that he was ready to provide “any constitutional and legal guarantee” and subsequently inquired about the kind of guarantee they required.

The Sindhi leadership recommended that no future dam or major irrigation project, including Bhasha or Kalabagh, should be taken in hand which contained any canal outlet. For this, they demanded a constitutional amendment through a two-thirds majority in the centre and a consensus legislation in Sindh Assembly that whenever Kalabagh dam is constructed, it would be without canals and such a design would be protected for all times to come.

A participant said Sindh representatives reiterated their demand to give up Kalabagh dam’s priority and take up Bhasha dam’s construction first and then move on to Kalabagh dam but without any canals and with a constitutional guarantee that its design would never be changed.

Informed sources said that PML secretary general Mushahid Hussain and the PM’s advisor on youth affairs, Mohammad Ali Durrani, also said that if consensus could not be achieved on Kalabagh dam, then priority should be given to Bhasha dam. Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao also supported construction of Bhasha dam on first priority.

Punjab Chief Minister Pervez Elahi, however, demanded that Kalabagh dam be constructed along with its necessary canals without delay.

The president assured participants that he would remove their reservations on construction of dams and National Finance Commission and he would visit NWFP and Balochistan in addition to revisiting Sindh again.

The crux of the position taken by Sindh ministers, according to a participant, is that they are not opposed to the construction of water reservoirs but construction of Bhasha dam before Kalabagh would ensure sufficient water supplies to Sindh and subsequently development of Kalabagh dam would become easier.

He said the Sindh chief minister and federal ministers from Sindh also opposed moves to refer the issue of construction of water reservoirs to the Supreme Court.

An official statement said the president shared his impressions on his recently concluded visits to Sukkur, Hyderabad and Karachi and said it helped to create awareness on the need for additional water reservoirs and clear perceptions.

The prime minister told the meeting that a report of the technical committee on water and recommendations of an international panel of experts on water escapages downstream Kotri would be released to the general public in the near future while the parliamentary committee’s report would be placed before the Senate.

He said a team of technical experts would brief provincial cabinets, coalition partners as well as opposition parties on the government’s water management strategy.

[url]http://www.dawn.com/2005/12/27/top1.htm[/url]

[B]Disregard for resolutions negation of federation’[/B]

Bureau Report

HYDERABAD, Dec 26: The Sindhi Association of North America (Sana) has termed rejection of resolutions of three provincial assemblies by rulers against Kalabagh dam a clear negation of federation.

Speaking at a news conference at the press club here on Monday, Sana president Aziz Narejo said that during last five years, Sindh had witnessed water shortage ranging between 30 and 80 per cent.

“We have roots in Sindh and we cannot remain indifferent to a terrible predicament being faced by the people of Sindh”, Mr Narejo said.

He said democracy had been derailed in Pakistan and Doctrine of Necessity had superseded the Constitution of 1973.

He said constant interference by the centre in affairs of provinces had become a rule rather than an exception.

He said what Pakistan needed was an unfettered and uncontrolled democracy.

He said members of parliament and provincial assemblies should emulate Awami National Party and volunteer to quit their seats if any announcement about construction of Kalabagh dam was made.

[url]http://www.dawn.com/2005/12/27/nat18.htm[/url]

[B]Major parties to attend anti-Kalabagh dam rally[/B]

By Our Correspondent

PESHAWAR, Dec 27: Various political parties and groups have assured their participation in the anti-Kalabagh rally of the Awami National Party at Jehangira, Nowshera, on December 29. This was stated by the ANP’s central vice president and chairman Anti-Kalabagh Front Ghulam Ahmed Bilour at a news conference in Peshawar Press Club on Tuesday.

He asked people from all walks of life to attend the rally to show their unity against a project which was aimed at destroying fertile lands of the province.

He said the Pakistan Peoples Party-Parliamentarian, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Jamaat-e-Islami, Jamiat Ulema Islam-Fazal, PPP-Sherpao and various organisations of lawyers, doctors, engineers and students had ensured their participation in the rally.

He said Mehmood Khan Achakzai from Balochistan, Afzal Khan Lala, Rasool Bakhsh Paleejo, Qadir Magsi from Sindh, and other nationalist leaders would also address the rally.

He said that friends and advisors of General Musharraf were pushing him towards a point-of-no-return.

He said its was a technical as well as a political issue and the assemblies of the NWFP, Sindh and Balochistan had already rejected the project through their unanimous resolutions.

He said the first resolution against the Kalabagh dam was passed in 1985 by NWFP Assembly, the second in Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao’s tenure and the third in Mir Afzal Khan’s tenure. He said all the parties and independent MPAs had backed these resolutions.

Mr Bilour said his party was not against production of cheap electricity or big water reservoirs and time and again had proposed to successive governments to build non-controversial Basha, Katzara and other dams instead of Kalabagh dam which was supported only by the Punjab.

[url]http://www.dawn.com/2005/12/28/nat41.htm[/url]

[B]KARACHI: Sindh Bar rejects Kalabagh Dam plan[/B]

By Our Staff Reporter

KARACHI, Dec 27: The Sindh Bar Council on Tuesday warned against the construction of Kalabagh Dam. An SBC meeting, held at Garhi Yasin, Shikarpur, with the council’s Vice-Chairperson, Noor Naz Agha, in the chair, said the dam project was unfeasible ‘geologically, hydrologically and economically’. A resolution passed by the meeting said, inter alia:

“This meeting of the Sindh Bar Council views with deep concern the proposed construction of the Kalabagh Dam. The project has been vehemently opposed by the people of Sindh, Balochistan and the NWFP, and their representative assemblies have repeatedly adopted resolutions against it.

“The construction of the dam, in the opinion of the council, is not only against the interests of the people of the three smaller provinces, but also of the country at large. The controversial issue has been raised to divert public attention and divide the people.”

Advocates Aqil Lodhi, Abdus Sattar Kazi, Mohammad Aqil, Sher Mohammad Hassan, Mahmoodul Hasan, Shafi Mohammad Chandio, Ali Mohammad Dahiri, Muzaffar Leghari, Fazal Qadir Memon, Mohammad Siddique Khoso and Ayaz Soomro are among the signatories to the resolution.

BALOCHISTAN: By another resolution, the SBC condemned the military action at Kohlu and other areas of Balochistan. Aircraft and helicopter gun-ships, it deplored, were being used against the Marri tribesmen in Kohlu district. The council demanded an immediate halt to the operation.

[url]http://www.dawn.com/2005/12/28/local3.htm[/url]

[B]KARACHI: Pakistan or Kalabagh Dam? Fahim asks rulers[/B]

KARACHI, Dec 27: Chairman of the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) and President of the Pakistan People’s Party-Parliamentarians Makhdoom Amin Fahim has said the rulers should now decide whether they want Pakistan or the Kalabagh Dam. “We will not accept constitutional guarantees from those who abrogate the constitution. The rulers are creating difficulties for the federation,” he said while talking to journalists at a wedding reception here on Monday night, adding that Gen Pervez Musharraf was not aware of facts.”

Makhdoom Fahim alleged that the country was being put at stake for the sake of irrigating 68,000 acres of land belonging to armed forces personnel in Cholistan.

In reply to a question, he said he respected PML-F chief Pir Pagara, but he the Hur leader should not support the scheme (Kalabagh dam) for the sake of irrigating his followers’ lands as this project was bound to turn Sindh into a desert.

Responding to another question, he maintained that he had seen Wapda reports which estimated the life span of Kalabagh Dam at 15-20 years, whereas that of Skardu Dam appeared to be 100 years. --PPI

[url]http://www.dawn.com/2005/12/28/local4.htm[/url]

[B]Minister supports Bhasha dam[/B]

SHIKARPUR, Dec 28: Federal Minister for Narcotics Ghous Bux Mahar has said that Sindh has been deprived of its due share of water for years and added that a step-motherly treatment is being meted out to the province.

Talking to newsmen at a breakfast hosted by the District Nazim, Mohammad Arif Mahar, in honour of the newly-elected District Naib Nazim, Taqi Abbas Kamario, and members of the district council here at district council lawn on Wednesday, he said that Sindh was an agricultural-based province and its 70 per cent population earned its livelihood through this sector, which could be possible only if their lands were given proper water.

To a question, the minister supported the construction of Bhasha dam on the condition of handing over its control to Sindh and addressing the grievances of the province.

He demanded that the agreement be reached to the the satisfaction of the people of Sindh.

He opposed the construction of any barrage or canal on the left bank of Indus River.—Correspondent

[url]http://www.dawn.com/2005/12/29/nat34.htm[/url]

[B]Protest against Kalabagh dam[/B]

Dawn Report

HYDERABAD, Dec 28: Activists of the Sindh National Party held a protest demonstration outside the press club here on Wednesday against the Kalabagh dam and the military operation in Balochistan.

Speaking on the occasion, they criticized the Balochistan operation and the Kalabagh project. They claimed that even the common man of Punjab was against the Kalabagh dam.

[B]They demanded that Kalabagh dam and greater Thal canal projects should be shelved, operation in Balochistan should be ended, Khokhrapar route should not be opened, provinces should be given provincial autonomy in accordance with the 1940 Resolution and JSMM leaders and other political activists should be released. (talk about losing focus here!)[/B]

Jeay Sindh Muttahida Mahaz activists also held a demonstration outside the press club against the military operation in Balochistan and continued detention of party leaders.

The protesters, including women and children, raised slogans against the operation in Balochistan and the alleged crackdown on party activists. They also carried banners against the Kalabagh dam.

Speaking on the occasion, Shahnawaz Bhutto, Asif Bhutto and others said whereabouts of JSMM leaders Muzaffar Bhutto, Sattar Hakro, Ahmad Khan Keerio, Zulfiqar Khaskheli and Mehran Mallah arrested 80 days ago were not known.

They condemned the operation in Balochistan and expressed solidarity with the people of the province.

They appealed to leaders of nationalist parties and human rights organizations to save lives of the JSMM leaders who were being held incommunicado.

[B]NAWABSHAH[/B]: Activists of the Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz and the Jeay Sindh Students Federation took out a procession against the Kalabagh dam here on Wednesday.

The procession started from the Quaid-i-Awam University and terminated outside the press club.

The protesters said people of Sindh had rejected the Kalabagh dam and those supporting the project were traitors.

They appreciated the decision of journalists who quit their newspaper favouring the Kalabagh dam.

They said they would continue their peaceful struggle for rights of Sindh.

[B]KHAIRPUR: [/B]The Jeay Sindh Students Federation and the Sindhi Adabi Sangat of the Shah Abdul Latif University took out a procession here on Wednesday against the proposed construction of the Kalabagh dam and the army operation in Balochistan.

The procession started from the National Highway and after marching through various roads reached the Panj Gola chowk, where the protesters held a demonstration.

[B]DADU: [/B]Hundreds of activists of the JSQM and the JSSF staged a protest demonstration outside the local press club on Wednesday against proposed construction of the Kalabagh dam and the greater Thal canal.

Speaking on the occasion, the protesters said they would not accept any dam on the Indus river.

They announced to continue their protest unless their demand was met.

Later, they observed a token hunger strike.

[url]http://www.dawn.com/2005/12/29/nat31.htm[/url]

[B]Govt urged to give up dam plan[/B]

QUETTA, Dec 28: [B]The Sindhi Adabi Sangat has demanded of the government to give up the idea of constructing the Kalabagh dam owing to the shortage of water in the Indus river.[/B]

Speaking at a press conference here on Wednesday, Dr. Altaf Hussain, councillor of the literary forum, said that the IRSA and Senate’s Standing Committee for Water and Resources had rejected the Kalabagh dam project in 1996 and 1998 respectively.

Dr Altaf said that according to constitutional requirements the Wapda authority should have filed an appeal in the Council of Common Interest against the rejection of the project by the IRSA.—Correspondent

[url]http://www.dawn.com/2005/12/29/nat13.htm[/url]

[B]Wapda team briefs MMA on dams[/B]

By Our Staff Reporter

LAHORE, Dec 28: [B]Wapda chairman Tariq Hameed along with a technical team gave a briefing to the MMA’s Punjab Council at Mansoora here on Wednesday as the alliance demanded setting up of the Council of Common Interests for taking a decision on water reservoirs[/B].

MMA president Qazi Husain Ahmad was also present.

Alliance’s Punjab president Liaquat Baloch told reporters later that the Wapda team briefed them on feasibilities and capacities of three proposed dams —- Kalabagh, Bhasha and Akhori.

He said during the briefing the Wapda team declared that apprehensions of the other provinces could be removed.

The MMA, he said, demanded that the government should constitute the CCI to remove apprehensions of the other provinces besides taking parliament into confidence on the issue.

The water reservoirs and cheap electricity were urgent needs of the country but Gen Musharraf was hindering the development of a national consensus on the issue, he said, adding the alliance believed that unless Gen Musharraf was removed, national solidarity and unity could not be strengthened.

He said the MMA would hold a joint meeting of all opposition parties to share the information given by the Wapda team especially with the leaders from smaller provinces so that views of both sides could be heard for developing a national consensus on the issue.

On Balochistan problem, Mr Baloch said the MMA demanded immediate halt to the ongoing army operation and peaceful means to settle the issue.

He demanded that recommendations of the parliamentary committee on Balochistan should be implemented to peacefully end the present deadlock.

About the proposed mixed marathon in Lahore, he warned that the MMA would launch a protest campaign severer than those witnessed in the past.

Condemning arrests and cases against ulema, the MMA said expulsion of foreign students was a cruel step by the government.

The meeting rejected the show of hands method adopted for electing naib nazims for tehsil and district councils as mockery of democracy and violation of the Constitution.

The Supreme Court was urged to take a suo moto of it.

[url]http://www.dawn.com/2005/12/29/nat8.htm[/url]

[B]PML ‘divided’ over KBD[/B]

By Amjad Mahmood

LAHORE, Dec 28: [B]The ruling PML is facing opposition within the party on the Kalabagh dam issue and is unlikely to table a resolution in parliament fearing defeat.[/B]

There are many PML senators and MNAs, who had voted against the project as MPAs in the past.

The party is divided even in its citadel —- Punjab —- as more and more MPs from the province are of the view that execution of the project in the present political atmosphere will be a blow to the federation, said party officials requesting anonymity.

The “high command” went a step further by directing withdrawal of a resolution in support of the dam that was to be taken up by the Punjab executive council of the party in its meeting held on Dec 16-18 which was also attended by the chief minister, the officials said.

The same forum had adopted the resolution in its last meeting held in September 2004.

The high-ups showed their displeasure when the PML Lawyers’ Wing adopted such a resolution at a meeting in the city last week, fearing such a step would add to the animosity against Punjab, they said.

The officials said that there was also apprehensions among the MPs that the political imbroglio in the wake of Kalabagh dam could be used by the powers-that-be to wrap up the assemblies.

These people argued that Gen Musharraf’s statement in Karachi that Punjab would topple the ruler who would oppose the water reservoir was meant to amplify misunderstandings against the province for creating the situation needed to dissolve the legislatures.

And why did the government choose to launch an army operation in Kohlu at a time when announcement for work on the dam was to be made? they questioned.

[url]http://www.dawn.com/2005/12/29/nat6.htm[/url]

[B]ANP vows to oppose Kalabagh Dam[/B]

By Our Staff Reporter

ISLAMABAD, Dec 28: [B]The Awami National Party (ANP) has said Kalabagh Dam is a matter of life and death for the people of NWFP and they will stop its construction at any cost.[/B]

Speaking to reporters in the cafeteria of Parliament House on Wednesday, Information Secretary of the party Zahid Khan said the people of the NWFP would participate in an anti-Kalabagh Dam rally on Thursday to prove that they were totally against the project.

He said women and children would also take part in the protest rally which would be held at Jahangira near Nowshera. He said the ANP had invited all political and religious parties to the rally. (so when a rally is for recreational purposes, and is called a Marathon, the women and children are beaten with sticks if they participate. But now when its for their political motives, these hypocritical bastards of NWFP want to bring the women and children out! talk about two faced beliefs!)

Mr Khan said they were trying to save Pakistan while the rulers wanted to damage the country’s integrity. He criticized Gen Pervez Musharraf for what he said pitting Punjab against three smaller provinces.

[url]http://www.dawn.com/2005/12/29/nat4.htm[/url]