ISLAMABAD, Jan 2: After bearing up with the opposition’s harsh criticism for days in the Senate, the ruling party on Monday seemed to adopt a softer line on the proposed Kalabagh dam before the session ended without finishing the heated debate on the project.
On the fourth day, there was only a short time left to continue the debate on “issues relating to the construction of large water reservoirs” after the holding of a draw for picking 50 new members and a briefing on major dams by Wapda. Half of the Senate members are to retire in a little over two months.
Two opposition senators kept up their side’s onslaught against the government’s insistence to build Kalabagh dam over the river Indus in the Mianwali district of Punjab, only a mild defence was put up by as many speakers from the ruling coalition. Two other coalition members declined to speak.
The proceedings were calm by comparison with the tense and noisy exchanges that marked the previous three days of the debate.
It was not clear whether an apparent lack of enthusiasm on the ruling coalition benches was the result of the tiresome draw or the closed-door Wapda briefing.
Before reading out the president’s order to prorogue the house after an 11-day session, PML’s Senator Chaudhry Mohammad Anwar Bhinder, who presided over the proceedings in the absence of Senate Chairman Mohammedmian Soomro, announced that the debate would be taken up again in the next session. No date has yet been set for the next session.
Both opposition senators Farooq Hamid Naek of the PPP and Mohammad Ishaq Dar of the PML-N accused President Gen Musharraf of jeopardizing the national integrity by pressing for the Kalabagh against the wishes of three provinces.
Mr Naek called for building small dams to conserve water and produce more electricity.
Mr Dar, a former finance minister, asked the government not to bulldoze the issue and instead arrange briefings and discussions by independent experts and settle the matter through a constitutional approach by seeking a decision from a revived Council of Common Interests.
He called for an immediate suspension of the consideration of Kalabagh dam and start of the construction of the alternative Bhasha dam on which the provinces had a consensus.
Minister of State for Overseas Pakistanis Tariq Azim Khan said that while everybody in the house agreed on the urgent need to have more water reservoirs, fears about the Kalabagh in the NWFP and Sindh were based on lack of knowledge as, according to him, smaller provinces would be the major beneficiaries of the project.
However, he urged all parties to rise above petty considerations to take decisions in the best interests of the country.
Pro-government independent senator Mohammad Amin Dadabhoy from Sindh stressed the need to build dams but did not support or oppose the Kalabagh project.
Earlier, PML senators Mrs Gulshan Saeed, who is to retire from her seat from Punjab in March, and Ms Pari Gul Agha, who will retain her seat from Balochistan for three more years, declined to speak when called upon by the chair to take their turns.
FOREIGN INVOLVEMENT: Before the start of the debate, Sanaullah Baloch of the Balochistan National Party (Mengal group) objected to remarks by foreign ministry spokesperson Tasneem Aslam at a news briefing earlier in the day that there were indication of foreign involvement in the current trouble in Balochistan.
“Yes, there are indications of one involvement,” she said in reply to a question but did not specify the country.
Mr Baloch said the foreign ministry spokesperson should be asked to inform parliament if she had any evidence of foreign involvement in Balochistan or not to “repeat such mistakes” of accusing Baloch leaders of acting at the behest of foreign powers.
While chairman Soomro assured the Balochistan senator that leader of the house Wasim Sajjad would convey his views to relevant quarters, Mr Sajjad seized upon the opportunity to defend the current crackdown in the province that he said was not a military operation but an action by the paramilitary Frontier Corps against what he called “miscreants” and “absconders” from law.
“It is a normal law and order reaction,” Mr Sajjad said about the action.
