Former Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Khurshid Shah said on Friday that the issue of the Kalabagh Dam should be resolved by the Council of Common Interests.
Referring to a petition regarding the controversial hydel power project being heard by the Supreme Court of Pakistan, Shah said the apex court should allow the council to look into the issue since the provincial legislatures of Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) had passed resolutions against the proposed project.
The hydroelectric structure opposed by smaller provinces of the country has been proposed on Indus River at Kalabagh in Mianwali district. The proposed dam has a 3,600-megawatt power generation capacity.
In April this year, the apex court had sought a reply from the federal government over measures taken for the construction of water reservoirs after it began hearing a petition on depletion of existing water reservoirs by 2025. “Unfortunately, Pakistan has suffered due to provincial strife and local politics and we have not built Kalabagh Dam. Kalabagh would be quicker to build and has already been approved by international [lenders]…Pakistan must build at least 20 dams to address water shortages for agriculture and drinking,” the petition read.
Published in Daily Times, June 9th 2018.
