LARKANA, Sept 28: Leader of the Opposition in the Sindh Assembly Nisar Ahmed Khuhro on Wednesday urged the chief justice of Pakistan to take suo motu notice of reports about construction of the Kalabagh dam, like the notice taken on the New Murree project.

Addressing a press conference here, he eulogized the move of the Supreme Court against the New Murree scheme and said that the suo motu notice was aimed at environmental protection. The scheme would create shortage of water in the Simply Dam, Islamabad, and result in the environmental degradation, he added.

The leader of the opposition said that the Supreme Court should take suo moto notice because three provinces had opposed the Kalabagh dam project by adopting resolutions against it, as the project would be a source of environmental degradation and ruin thousands of acres of the fertile land in Sindh. Some areas in the NWFP would face water logging.

He said that if the federal secretaries concerned and Capital Development Authority director-general could be summoned by the court then why not the prime minister, planning secretary and chief ministers of all the four provinces be put on notice.

He said that the shortage of irrigation water had turned the fertile agriculture fields of Sindh into barren land and two million acres famous for sugarcane cultivation had been devastated, and what to say of the ruined mangroves forests.

He regretted the silence of the Supreme Court on the loss of lives in Karachi and Hyderabad owing to the supply of contaminated water.

Mr Khuhro appealed to the apex court to take suo moto notice on the Kalabagh dam issue and summon all stakeholders to the court.

He alleged that the federal government was blackmailing the provinces in the name of Kalabagh dam project.

The opposition leader in the Sindh Assembly demanded that the government should make the A.G.N Abbasi report, regarding the construction of new dams, public. He said that the commission might have rejected the construction of Kalabagh dam and the federal government out of fear was not making the report public and hushing up the issue.

He alleged that parliament had been made redundant, whereas the people’s voice had been gagged.

When asked why the PPP was not moving the Supreme Court regarding the construction of dams, Mr Khuhro said that they were hoping that the apex court would also take a suo motu notice on the Kalabagh dam issue.

Replying a question that why the matter had not been placed and discussed at the forum of the Council of Common Interests, he said that CCI despite a constitutional obligation had yet not been constituted.

He regretted that the NFC award, which was due in the year 2000, had not yet been decided.

Former MPA Ghulam Mujtaba Isran, Mushtaq Ahmed Chandio, PPP leader Aftab Bhutto and Saleem Soomro were also present at the press conference.