SWABI, Dec 10: The provincial chief of Jamaat-i-Islami and a leader of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA), Prof Ibrahim, has said that the “core issue” is not the construction of Kalabagh Dam but the payment of Rs14 million net profit by the Centre to the NWFP government.

Talking to Dawn here on Monday night, he said if the federal government paid royalty on power the NWFP government could easily handle its financial affairs. Various development projects could be completed and new ones started and some other problems resolved, he added.

To get royalty on power from the Centre, he said, was the top priority of the NWFP government and for achieving this objective the MMA government would utilise all its energies, hoping that the federal government would no longer adopt delaying tactics.

Linking the Kalabagh Dam with royalty on power, Prof Ibrahim said the federal and Punjab governments should come forward and announce the merging of district Mianwali and Attock in the NWFP and only then the issue of the controversy-ridden project would be settled.

The NWFP, he hoped, would get royalty on power of Kalabagh Dam and the much delayed project constructed soon but it all depended on the federal and Punjab governments to take steps for merging of these districts in the NWFP.

In such scenario, he predicted the Awami National Party (ANP) would also not oppose the construction of the Kalabagh Dam while the other parties and leaders could also convince the people on the dam construction issue.

To a question, he said if the federal government gave power to the MMA government it would convert the Governor House into a model university for women and thousands of females would be able to get modern education there.

It would not only boost the women position in society but their participation in the nation-building would also be sure, he further said.

To a question about the United States’ possible attack on Iraq, he said the American hegemonistic policy would lead to its own decline because the whole world, specially the Muslim world would oppose it, as on the one hand, the United Nation inspectors had been inspected all key sites and even Saddam’s palace was searched, on the other hand, the US was drawing the post-Saddam plan and preparing for war.

In case, he said, the US overstepped the UN mandate the MMA would stage protest demonstrations across the country against the American expansionist policy.