ISLAMABAD, Dec 13: Opposition lawmakers in the National Assembly on Tuesday severely criticized President Pervez Musharraf’s statement that resolutions adopted by three provincial assemblies were no impediment to construction of the Kalabagh dam, while treasury members from Punjab supported the project and accused the opposition of politicising the issue.
Ms Naheed Khan of the PPP hit out at the president’s remark that any government opposing the project would be toppled by Punjab and that his government would remain in power till completion of the KBD.
She said Gen Musharraf was trying to pit provinces against each other and challenged the president to address a joint session of parliament, if he thought he could the ignore the stand of the provinces against Kalabagh.
Ms Khan said: “This is Pakistan which was founded by Quaid-i Azam and reconstructed by the late Z.A. Bhutto and it was definitely not a creation of the army or any general.”
She rejected a statement by a minister, who she said had won his seat on PPP ticket, that Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif were in contact with the government and categorically declared that at least her leader had nothing to do with Gen Musharraf.
She asked Punjab to think over the KBD project and stop supporting it because it hurt the interest of ‘young brothers’ (smaller provinces).
PPP Parliamentarians, Sherry Rehman criticized the president and the government for initiating consultations on the KBD without bringing the issue for debate in parliament.
She called for a full-fledged debate in the house on the subject before taking it to the masses. She warned of a ‘war between provinces’ on the water issue and said that the 1991 accord on water-sharing among provinces should be implemented.
Qurban Ali Shah, also of the PPP, said the president was violating the constitution by bypassing the Council of Common Interests, not taking parliament into confidence and not consulting even the prime minister or the cabinet.
He said the president and the four provincial governors were bound under Article 29 of the Constitution to send observance of principles of policies by the assemblies concerned every year which had not been done over the past three years.
Minister of State for Environment Malik Amin Aslam supported the KBD project and said a viable and important project could not be sacrificed on the whims of a few people and made hostage to a few emotional speeches.
He said the issue ought be debated in parliament. Farooq Amjad Mir of the ruling PML alleged that the opposition was politicising the KBD project while the president was taking the message to every province to convince them and win their support.
Syed Khurshid Shah of the PPP refuted the allegation that the opposition was politicising the dam issue and said it was the government which had ignored the opinion of the masses and the interests of smaller provinces for the sake of one province.
Meanwhile, the opposition lawmakers criticised the rationale of awarding most of the contracts of road projects to a particular firm by the National Highway Authority and raised questions about the company’s connections.
Uproar was witnessed when the government insisted that the firm had been awarded a contract for Lahore-Okara by-pass project on merit and being lowest bidder.
Several legislators, including Khawaja Asif, protested against ‘an anomaly’ in the award of the contract and asked why the construction company was given contracts of many government projects.
