KARACHI, Dec 13: Chief of the Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarians Makhdoom Amin Fahim on Tuesday said that Kalabagh dam was a dead issue and had been rejected by three federating units and declared that there was no question of discussing the issue with the government.
Speaking at a news conference, Makhdoom Amin said his party would not support anything that was against the integrity of Pakistan. He claimed that after the rejection by majority of the provinces, Kalabagh dam had become a dead issue but the military rulers had often injected it into political ball game to divert the nation’s attention from the biggest problem being faced Pakistan, i.e., lack of democracy and rule of law. They have used it to boost centrifugal tendencies, he alleged.
Makhdoom Amin Fahim said that Mr Abbasi had represented Sindh on the committee set up to decide on the project and he had recorded his note of dissent against the project.
The PPP-P chief, who also heads the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD), said that there was no room for negotiations on the subject because three provinces had out rightly rejected it.
He urged the rulers to respect the consensus of the provinces against the project and refrain from taking rash and egoistic decisions at the cost of country’s integrity.
Asked whether he apprehended winding up of the present dispensation by Gen Musharraf after facing tough opposition on KBD, Makhdoom Fahim said that “in one man’s rule and dictatorship anything can happen”. He was of the view that military rulers had always harmed Pakistan’s national interests. In this regard he referred to the Indus Water Treaty which Ayub Khan signed with India under the aegis of the World Bank; dismemberment of Pakistan; proliferation of Klashnikov culture; ethnic and sectarian divide and proliferation of heroin under Gen Ziaul Haq. He claimed that Gen Musharraf, with the backing of his distant supporters, had also embarked on the same divisive course.
Asked to comment on PML(Q) chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain’s remarks in which he had reportedly said that KBD would be constructed at all costs and even if the provincial party faced difficulties, Makhdoom Amin said that Mr Hussain was entitled to have any view but important national issues had to be resolved with consensus. He, nevertheless, added that such remarks only strengthened the feeling that small provinces were being coerced into subjugation. That was not acceptable, he said.
He pointed out that Sindh Assembly had thrice passed resolutions against it. He asked the rulers whether they wanted Kalabagh or Pakistan. “The choice is theirs,” he said. He pointed out that if the three provinces, which had rejected the project, opt out of the federation, then how Pakistan could survive.
He said that Gen Musharraf’s statement on KBD would fuel provincialism because he was allegedly trying to pit the one province against other. Makhdoom Amin asked why the government can’t go for Bhasha or Skardu projects if it was sincere in dealing with water shortage. He said that huge amount had been spent on feasibility and the rulers should not press for the controversial project under any pressure.
