KARACHI: Mahar group to propagate water vision across Sindh
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, Feb 4: Sardar Ali Gohar Khan Mahar on Saturday announced full support from his group of ministers and legislators to President Pervez Musharraf’s water vision, saying that water reservoirs were need of the hour. In the next few years, he added, the need for reservoirs would be felt immensely.
The president’s decision to defer Kalabagh Dam and build Bhasha and Munda dams first was a bold step, he said.
Sardar Mahar made this announcement at a crowded press conference at his residence here on Saturday in the presence of the most of the members of his group comprising 15 legislators, including federal Minister Ghous Bux Mahar, former Sindh chief minister Sardar Ali Mohammad Mahar, Minister of State Sardar Ali Nawaz Khan Mahar, provincial Ministers Dr Sohrab Serki and Altaf Hussain Unnar, Adviser to the CM Syed Manzoor Hussain Shah, Ghulam Rasool Unnar, Deputy Speaker of the Sindh Assembly Rahila Tiwana, PML leaders Maqbool Ahmad Shaikh and Alim Adil Shaikh, MPAs Bano Saghir, Abdul Razzaq Thahim, Afshan Imran, Faiz Mohammad Mahar, Farida Baloch and Zulfikar Kumario. The names of Dr Saeeda Malik and Sardar Manzoor Panhwar were also in the list but they were not present on the occasion.
The list, distributed among journalists at the press conference, also included names of three district nazims — Syed Nasir Hussain Shah of Sukkur, Arif Khan Mahar of Shikarpur and Mohammad Bux Arejo of Larkana.
This was the first press conference in Sindh at which the plan for raising dams on river Indus was supported by an influential family having an immense political clout in three districts of upper Sindh.
With reference to the resignation of his brother, Ali Mohammad Mahar, from the office of the chief minister, Sardar Ali Gohar Mahar was asked whether his support to the dam plan may be taken as change of heart or a move towards a change of chief minister. The Sardar categorically stated that his group was neither planning to form a new group within the PML, nor did it believe in dislodging chief minister Dr Arbab Rahim, who, he pointed out, was from the PML.
However, he did mention that the chief minister should take along all the party colleagues with him as “no one keeps power for long… it’s a game of musical chair.”
In reply to a question, he recalled that Ali Mohammad Mahar had taken a stand on the Kalabagh Dam and NFC Award issues as a chief minister keeping in view the aspiration of the people of Sindh. “We will never go against the wishes of the people,” he added.
Sardar Mahar was of the view that there was a consensus among national parties on the need for dams but they lacked courage in taking a bold stand. President Musharraf had taken a courageous decision which had created harmony among all four provinces, he said.
He said that during a meeting with the president in Sukkur, his group had maintained that until a consensus on big dams was evolved, any decision taken against the wishes of the masses would go against the interests of the federation.
“The president had accepted our principled stand, and finally deferred the construction of Kalabagh Dam in the interest of the federation. As such, we now consider it our moral duty to extend support to the president’s water vision.”
Alim Adil Shaikh, speaking on the occasion, said that with the announcement of support to the president’s dam plan, the group would launch a campaign to activate the party cadre, starting from Ghotki, through public meetings to propagate Gen Musharraf’s water vision.
The campaign would also help strengthen the central and provincial leadership, he added.
