25 October 2004	Monday	10 Ramazan 1425

DADU, Oct 24: Federal Minister for Water and Power Liaquat Ali Jatoihas said that six million acre feet of water are available in reservoirs and there is 36 per cent water shortage in the country.

He was speaking at a public gathering in Boriri village during ground-breaking ceremony of the Kakar waterway in Khairpur Nathan Shah taluka on Sunday.

The minister said when he took over the ministry, the availability of water was four MAF and shortage was of up to 56 per cent.

The minister claimed that the country would not face water shortage during the Rabi season as due share would be supplied to the provinces.

Referring to the Ordinance about the Jirga, he said that he would follow party decision on the issue and if the National Assembly imposed ban on holding of jirga he would support the decision.

He said some members and people were trying to create violence in the National Assembly and they were trying to uproot the democratic system.

He said during voting on the no-confidence motion against the speaker, opposition members had not observed democratic norms.

They had torn ballot papers and boycotted the house after creating hooliganism.

He said the ruling party had allowed the opposition in the National Assembly to discuss the issue for two hours but when the speaker wanted to talk in his defence, they tore the ballot papers.

He said though the opposition leaders had brought 111 members out of 148 members in the National Assembly to vote on no-confidence motion against the speaker but failed to bring remaining 37 members.

He said the government would complete its tenure and opposition leaders were giving wrong impression that assemblies would not complete the tenure.

Mr Jatoi said President Gen Pervez Musharraf had introduced good policies.

He said if he had not introduced such policies, Pakistan would have been declared terrorist country or it would have faced economic crises.

He claimed on the directives of former Sindh chief minister Abdullah Shah fake cases were registered against him and his house in Betto Jatoi was searched by the police for six times.

He said with a cost of Rs850 million a pumping scheme would be constructed at Mado and Kakar waterway to cultivate thousands of acres of barren land in the area.

He said another pumping scheme would be constructed at the Makhdoom Bilawal Bridge to supply water to Dadu canal for farming.

He said that 56 villages of the district had been electrified.

On this occasion, the executive engineer of the southern division, Dadu, Mr Habib Kaboro said the work on the Kakar waterway would be completed by the end of this year and Rs5.5 million would be spent on 17 RDs of this waterway.