October 25, 2003	Saturday	Sha’aban 28, 1424

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

SWABI, Oct 24: The provincial president of Awami National Party Begum Nasim Wali Khan has said that those predicting the construction of Kalabagh dam are living in a fool’s paradise.

Addressing the party workers here on Friday she said the dream of the incumbent regime about the construction of Kalabagh would not come true.

She recalled that the previous rulers also made efforts to this effect, but in vain.

She said water and power minister Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao had supported the Kalabagh dam construction just to preserve his own ministerial slot, but, come election time, he will have to pay a big price for this.

The Kalabagh dam, she said, would be constructed over the dead bodies of the Pukhtun community, and we are not ready to welcome this anti-Pukhtun project.

The politicians of Punjab, she claimed, wanted to “devour all the resources of the country” while other federating units had been ignored. “How long this practice would continue,” she queried, and went on to say that the people of deprived provinces had awakened, and were demanding provincial autonomy and their due share in all resources.

The Pukhtun community, she said, had been passing through a very crucial stage and if they failed to make collective efforts for their rights it would certainly have a far-reaching impact not only on them but also on the next generation.

Castigating the MMA government, she questioned what this six-party alliance had done for the welfare of the people.

She said even the promised Islamization of the province had been put on the back burner.

She said that “we had informed the people” at the very beginning that the MMA government had only made empty slogans.

Former prime minister Z.A. Bhutto, she said, had deceived the people in the name of Roti, Kapra aur Makan and the MMA dodged the masses in the name of Islam.

We are equally good Muslims, and there is no need for the MMA to pontificate about practising Islam, she said.