MANSEHRA: The landowners of Kaghan valley have warned of not allowing the execution of the 870 megawatt Suki Kinari hydropower project if they are not properly compensated and given jobs in the project.

“A private firm after getting approval from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has started land acquisition for the project but we want our issues to be settled before start of work on the project,” said Qari Abdul Hameedur Rehman, a landowner, while speaking at a press conference in Balakot on Monday.

A private company, SK Hydro Private Limited, would build the power project after an agreement it reached with the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government earlier this year.

The land acquisition process for the dam to be built at Kunhar River between Kaghan and Naran, has already been started.

Mohammad Mushtaq, another landowner, said: “We want the price formula which has been applied for acquisition of land for the Diamer-Bhasha and Dasu hydropower projects.” He said that the landowners had decided to put up resistance if their genuine demands were not met.

Speaking on the occasion, Mian Ashraf, another local resident, said that the district government should remove the concerns of the people about the compensation as the area to be used up for constructing the dam had mosques, schools and health centres.

He said that affected people wanted employment during and after the construction of the dam.

KKH REOPENED: The protesters on Monday reopened the Karakoram Highway to traffic after successful talks with the district administration which agreed to set free all the nine political and social activists, who were arrested a few days ago under section 3 of MPO for instigating people to block the Karakoram Highway.

The road, which was blocked on Saturday following the arrests, was reopened to traffic on Monday evening after the Kohistan district bar association mediated the talks between a 30-memebr negotiating team of protesters and the district administration.

The district administration team, which included deputy commissioner Zafarul Islam, district police officer Ali Rehmat Khan and assistant commissioner Mohammad Abid, conditionally agreed to release the nine activists if people of Kohistan didn’t block the KKH in future.

“We are bound by law to take to justice those who will challenge the government writ,” said the deputy commissioner.

Published in Dawn December 16th , 2014