PESHAWAR, Oct 2: Speakers at a seminar urged the government to concentrate on the construction of other water dams instead of the Kalabagh dam to avoid controversy.

Provincial chapter of Liberal Forum arranged a one-day seminar entitled “Water Dispute: Main Source of Conflict in Pakistan” at the Peshawar Press Club here on Wednesday.

The seminar was addressed by ANP central vice president Ghulam Ahmed Bilour, People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) MPA from Thatta Sassi Paleejo and PPP parliamentary leader in the NWFP Assembly Abdul Akbar Khan. Dr Shafiqur Rehman, Chairman, Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Peshawar, was the main speaker.

Both ANP and PPP leaders proposed a public debate on the project, and said that the project had been rejected by three elected provincial assemblies for being harmful to their interests.

ANP leader Ghulam Ahmed Bilour said that the Senate Standing Committee on the Kalabagh Dam had also opposed the project, but an Army General who stood dismissed was adamant to stick to power.

The General, he asserted, was in pursuit of the issues which could divert the attention of the people from other important issues, like the Legal Frameworks Order. He said General Musharraf had raised the Kalabagh Dam issue to placate the people of Punjab and lower the image of former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif.

He claimed that both Nawaz and Benazir were still popular among the masses in Punjab and the General would never succeed in undermining their image in the Punjab province.

Mr Bilour feared that the construction of the Kalabagh Dam would play havoc with the fertile land of the NWFP and the people of Sindh would be deprived of water.

He said there was no room for downstream water reservoirs of Tarbela on the Indus River to protect the interests of Sindhi population.

Ms Sassi Paleejo of the PPP said that despite having shown certain reservations over the Indus Water Apportionment Accord of 1991, Sindh was asking for its implementation but the federal as well as Punjab governments were unwilling to honour the accord.

She said the people of Sindh had been facing acute water shortage for the past several years, asserting that the people were even dying for lack of water and food but the government was least bothered to resolve these problems.

She said it was surprising that despite opposition by Sindh and the NWFP, the government was working to build the Greater Thall Canal, which, she said, could cause irreparable loss to residents of the two province. The government, she said, should opt for the construction of non-controversial water reservoirs to allay fears of the people of the provinces to be affected by the Kalabagh Dam.

Dr Shafiqur Rehman dwelt at length on the significance of depleting water resource, saying that more reservoirs needed to be built on the Indus River in future to cater to water requirements of future.

He, however, said that priority should be given to Basha and Daso dams before reaching a consensus on the Kalabagh Dam.

The construction of more dams on the Indus, he said, could address the problem of water shortages in Sindh and Punjab.