SWABI, June 26: The inauguration of the Pehur High-level canal has been delayed by four months, sources in the irrigation department said on Sunday.

Attributing the delay on political deadlock over the Legal Framework Order issue, officials of the irrigation department and the Turkish construction firm said that they were unable to give an exact date for the inauguration of the canal, adding that it depended when Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali could spare time in this regard.

They said that the inauguration could further be pushed back because of the opposition’s no-trust move against the speaker of the National Assembly, adding that the government seemed to be concentrating on shielding the speaker against the move.

In February, the sources said, the federal minister for water and power Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao had assured the irrigation authorities that the Prime Minister would soon announce a specific date in this regard.

However, the sources said that senior officials of the irrigation department still believed that the prime minister would be the chief guest in the inauguration ceremony.

The construction work on the gigantic project had begun in May 1998.

The work on the project was briefly halted after the Sept 11 incident as Turkish engineers had left the country when the US attacked the Taliban regime in Afghanistan but it resumed soon after the installation of the Karzai government.

Sources said that the project had already been tested.