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| January 17, 2006 | Tuesday | Zilhaj 16, 1426 |
Shahbaz calls for CBMs on KBD
LAHORE, Jan 16: PML-N President Mian Shahbaz Sharif says the government should remove the doubts of the smaller provinces about autonomy and their share in financial resources before seeking their support on the Kalabagh dam project.
Talking to Dawn by phone from London on Monday, he said confidence-building measures should be taken in order to create a conducive atmosphere for the gigantic project which in his opinion was necessary to meet the future irrigation and power requirements of the country.
He believed that the CBMs would help break the ice and the provinces now opposing the KBD would ultimately change their opinion.
The former chief minister said that the project could not be set up merely through press statements. Instead, he said, the rulers would have to take practical measures to build it.
Referring to a statement made by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz that it would take the government about 30 months to prepare the feasibility of Bhasha dam, which some say should be undertaken before the KBD, the PML-N leader said why the government had been “slumbering” for the past six years.
Had the government started work on the feasibility of various water reservoirs well in time, it would have been in a position to start construction by now, he argued.
“I am in favour of the KBD, but it would be wrong to construct it without national consensus”, Shahbaz Sharif said, adding that the consensus would not be possible without the CBMs.
He said the government must learn a lesson from the 1971 tragedy, when Pakistan had dismembered. He said all federating units should be taken along, and for that the government would have to address their grievances.
He recalled that Mian Nawaz Sharif had announced the construction of the KBD when Pakistan had carried out nuclear tests. The then prime minister, he said, was of the view that the government had attained high political ground to launch the project after making Pakistan the 7th nuclear power of the world. But, unfortunately, he said, anti-KBD demonstrations started in Sindh because of which the plan was deferred.
“But the sincerity of Mian Nawaz Sharif — that KBD should be set up — cannot be questioned”, Shahbaz said.
The former chief minister said two US missile attacks in Bajaur Agency in a single week amounted to making a mockery of Pakistan’s sovereignty. He said if the US wanted to capture some people from Bajaur, it should have taken the Pakistan government into confidence.
“This is a serious attack on Pakistan’s territorial integrity and international law”.
He recalled that the present rulers had rendered many “services” to the US, which were not valued by the latter. “They (US) don’t trust our government”, he said.
These attacks, he said, had raised many questions. “Maybe, God forbid, such attacks were carried out in cooperation with the Pakistan government”.
Answering a question, Shahbaz Sharif said the earthquake, though a natural calamity, had provided the present rulers with an opportunity to go for a grand national reconciliation and prepare the country to meet all challenges. But, he said, perhaps such a course did not suit the people sitting in the Presidency, he said in an obvious reference to Gen Pervez Musharraf.
He was critical of the new local government system which had deprived the provinces of much of their autonomy.
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