December 16, 2001	Sunday	Ramazan 30, 1422

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window).

PESHAWAR, Dec 15: President Gen Pervez Musharraf has directed the provincial governments of NWFP, Sindh and Punjab to provide their quota of land to those affected by the Tarbela Dam construction by Dec 31, 2001, official sources told Dawn.

Instructions to this effect sent to the provincial governments through an official letter dated Dec 5, 2001, by the Chief Executive Secretariat, Islamabad, were issued to the provincial authorities after the Wapda Chairman, Lt-Gen Zulfiqar Ali Khan, made a wide-ranging presentation to the president about Wapda affairs on Nov 29, last.

However, in line with the recent past, this time too, the instructions are, apparently, unlikely to be implemented by the provincial governments.

At least, in the case of NWFP, according to sources, the Chief Executive Secretariat has already been apprised that the provincial government does not have 2,607 acres required for distribution among some of the affected people.

About well over a year ago, the Chief Executive Secretariat had issued instructions to the governments of the three provinces to jointly allot over 23,000 acres to those hit by the construction of the Tarbela Dam in an effort to redress the issue pending for the last over 25 years.

Whereas the NWFP was to provide 2,607 acres in Dera Ismail Khan district, Sindh and Punjab were required to jointly provide 21,000 acres to accommodate remaining of the affected people.

In this respect, said the sources, several reminders were also issued to the provincial governments to undertake the necessary work but to no avail as none of the three provinces implemented the Chief Executive Secretariat’s instructions.

“In the latest move,” said the senior official sources, “the provincial governments have been directed to implement the instructions by Dec 31, 2001, in an effort to meet a World Bank conditionality for the release of Ghazi Barotha hydro power project loan.”

The World Bank has conditioned the 100 per cent release of $350 million loan for Ghazi Barotha power project with the resettlement of the affected people.

Apparently, said the sources, Islamabad was facing difficulties in getting the remaining of the World Bank loan as the resettlement issue was still there and the military government too could not make any difference to resolve the issue.

In its reply to the Chief Executive Secretariat, said the sources, the NWFP government had sought guidance that the 2,607 acres earlier identified for distribution among the affected people in Dera Ismail Khan had been allotted to the army authorities.

Federal authorities have again been apprised that the army authorities had requested the provincial government for allotment of some 20,000 acres of state land in Dera Ismail Khan for the purpose of distribution among the families of the martyred army personnel and deserving servicemen.

“The Chief Executive Secretariat has been intimated that the 2,607 acres earlier identified for the affected people are also included in over 17,500 acres already taken over by the army authorities in Dera Ismail Khan, hence, there is no more surplus state land to be distributed among the affected people,” said the official sources.

Besides, the Chief Executive Secretariat, said the sources, had also been apprised that the affected people had already refused to accept some 225 plots that had been identified in Mansehra district’s Oghi area for the purpose of distribution among them.

Though the Chief Executive Secretariat has asked the provincial authorities to provide the land by Dec 31, 2001, on priority basis, the move is once again unlikely to be executed, making the affected people to wait further to get their 25-year long issue redressed.