KARACHI, Aug 20: President Pervez Musharraf has declared that the year 2005 would be 'the year of great development' in the country. "While talking about electricity, I personally think optimistically, and a lot of people say that 2005 and beyond is going to be a year of development in Pakistan. I am fully convinced it will be. We will make sure that it is."

The President was speaking at a ceremony held here on Friday where he performed ground-breaking of the power supply and desalination plant of the Defence Housing Authority.

Those who attended the ceremony were Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad, Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim, Corps Commander Lt-Gen Ahsan Saleem Hayat, Governor of State Bank Dr Ishrat Hussain and senior officials of the federal and provincial governments.

The President described the plant as a momentous project leading to a new direction which was important in the national perspective.

"While we talk about water, the discussion is restricted to the water for agricultural purposes for which we utilize the available facility to a maximum and do not take future drinking water requirements into consideration," he observed, and added that in view of the expected population growth in the country over the next 25 years, drinking water would be in scarce supply.

"I shudder to think what will happen after 25 years. Certainly, the direction is the desalination plants all along the coastline to convert seawater into drinking water."

President Musharraf said that in this year of development and beyond, the essential requirement was electricity and gas. Therefore, he added, all our energies should be concentrated on increasing these resources.

He was of the view that electricity and gas should be abundantly available in the country so that investors could be provided a guarantee of such facilities. While expressing his views on water problem in Karachi, President Musharraf made mention of 'tanker mafia' and pointed out that the mafia operating in the city used to take away water through hydrants.

This water, he added, was meant for the consumers in the city. "If they are stopped, this very water will come into the pipelines," he observed. The President stressed the need for curbing the water mafia and described the job as 'most important'. This, he said, would result in the availability of water to the people at cheaper cost.

Speaking on the occasion, Corps Commander Lt-Gen Ahsan Saleem Hayat, who is also President of the DHA's Executive Board said that the economic policies pursued over the past five years be sustained. -APP