December 27, 2002	Friday	Shawwal 22, 1423

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HARIPUR, Dec 26: Many victims of the Tarbela dam plan have rejected a compensation package announced by the military government for them and decided to move the Supreme Court on the issue.

This was stated by Shabir Anwar Khan, a spokesman for the SMT, a Khalabat Township-based NGO of the Tarbela dam victims.

Former revenue minister Aminullah Gandapur had last month announced the compensation package for the Tarbela dam victims who could not either receive alternative agriculture land or residential plots against their losses suffered at the time of construction of Tarbela dam some three decade back.

Speaking on behalf of the victims, the spokesman termed the package mere peanuts for what he called a great sacrifice in the Pakistan’s history for a national cause.

Anwar Khan, who himself is a victim of the dam project, claimed that they had been promised alternative agriculture land and residential plots. But over 8,000 claimants, who had spent their hard-earned money to get regularised their genuine claims, had failed to get their rights secured, he lamented.

According to Anwar Khan, a majority of the victims who were allotted land in Sindh and Punjab also could not get possession of the land owing to a lack of official support to them.

He said that when the government “under the World Bank pressure” had asked the victims to file their pending claims, there were 4,500 claimants for agricultural land and 3,500 for residential plots.

But, he said, the commission formed to asses the claims in 1998, had declared only 1,700 demands for agriculture land while only 44 for alternative residential plots as genuine. And findings of the commission had been declared classified documents which had never been shown to the representatives of victims, he added.