KARACHI, July 5: Balochistan Provincial Minister and member of the Inter-Provincial Coordination Committee Syed Sher Jan Baloch has demanded that the Sindh government pay decades-old dues amounting to Rs12 billion to Balochistan for Karachi’s use of water from the Hub Dam.
Addressing a press conference at the Karachi Press Club on Thursday, he said that these funds could be used for rehabilitation activities in Balochistan.
The minister said that the issue of these dues was earlier raised at all the three meetings of the Inter-Provincial Coordination Committee.
‘Polls should be delayed’
Mr Baloch said that the general elections should not be held this year as millions of voters were homeless and there was no possibility or feasibility of holding elections as most people of Sindh and Balochistan were displaced and the infrastructure in many parts of both provinces had collapsed. He added that Balochistan would take years to stabilise.
He regretted that the federal government was delaying the National Finance Commission award to the provinces and said that the award must be given to the provinces on the basis of area.
Extent of damage
About the assessment of damage in Balochistan, he said the cyclone and floods had killed around 250 people in the province, rendered millions of people homeless, and damaged 25 big and 250 small fishing launches.
He said most of the infrastructure remained useless and inter-provincial highways remained closed for 10 days, resulting in huge financial losses and delays in rescue operations.
The provincial minister lauded the efforts of the Pakistan Navy, Army, the government of Sindh, the governor of Saudi Arabia’s Tabuk province and the president of the UAE for assisting Balochistan and its people and appealed for further help.
About the rescue operations, Mr Baloch said that every day two C-130 aircraft carrying relief goods were landing in Balochistan and 12 trucks of relief goods were dispatched on Thursday.
Hub Canal repaired
The repair work of the Hub Canal, which supplies water to Karachi from the Hub Dam, was completed on Wednesday and water was released into the canal on Thursday.
According to the KWSB, the supply of 100mgd of water to areas linked with the Hub Dam system will start from Friday. The recent rains had caused three breaches in the canal and supply of water to Karachi was stopped because of the repair work.—PPI/APP
