PESHAWAR, Feb 5: The Awami National Party (ANP) has reiterated its opposition to the construction of a big dam at Kalabagh and asked the federal government to shelve the project once and for all in the larger national interest.

Speaking at a ceremony held on Friday in connection with the launch of a book 'Kalabagh: Aik Shar-Angez Mansooba', senior Pukhtoon leaders said that the controversial project was aimed at creating a rift among the people of Pakistan.

Nasim Wali Khan, chief of the NWFP chapter of the ANP, said that the Kalabagh dam was a project dangerous for the sovereignty of the country and the unity of its people.

"ANP will never compromise on its stand on the Kalabagh dam, therefore, the rulers should not commit mistake of launching its construction," she said. She warned the government of the consequences of building Kalabagh dam and said that her party would never allow it to be constructed at any cost.

Besides Nasim Wali Khan, ANP's senior vice-president Ghulam Ahmed Bilour, provincial vice-president Syed Aaqil Shah, general secretary Farid Toofan and author of the book Qazi Hidayatullah also spoke on the occasion. They explained their point of view on the project and its adverse social and economic effects, particularly in respect of the NWFP.

They said that legislatures of the smaller provinces had passed, more than once, unanimous resolutions against the Kalabagh dam yet the federal government wanted to execute the project.

"We are not going to change our stand as we have always made it clear to the pro-dam forces that we would prefer to die than to agree on execution of the disputed project," said Nasim Wali.

She said the government wanted the country to face the same situation it had experienced in 1970 when it lost its one wing.

"The government," said the ANP's provincial chief "should learn a lesson from the past and try to create harmony among the federating units and desist from creating more tension among them".

Appreciating the author's efforts to highlight negative impacts of the project, she said that the government should also benefit from the book which offered a good insight into the disputed project.

Meanwhile, the provincial body of ANP, in a press release issued here on Friday, condemned the federal government for not allowing a delegation of ANP from proceeding to Jalalabad, Afghanistan. The delegation was to pay a visit to the Mazar of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, the founder of the Red Shirt Movement, on the occasion of his death anniversary.