PESHAWAR, Aug 26: The Awami National Party on Monday asked the government to shelve the Kalabagh dam project to promote harmony among the  federating units and ensure national cohesion.

Speaking to party workers at Tappa Khalil, on the outskirts of the provincial capital, ANP leaders warned the government against executing the project and said the move would shatter national unity and adversely affect the economic interests of the NWFP and Sindh.

NWFP ANP General Secretary Farid Khan Toofan asked the government to “bury the controversial project.”

The project, he said, would convert the NWFP into a lake and turn the fertile land of Sindh into a desert.

He said if the government insisted on building the dam despite its  negative effects on the smaller provinces, the people of the NWFP would launch resistance against it.

“The ANP will not allow the construction of the Kalabagh dam at any cost,” he said.

He said the issue had been revived at a time when the Alliance for  the Restoration of Democracy was planning a movement against the government, its negotiations with the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal had collapsed and the country was facing a war-like situation on its western and eastern borders.

“The project is a threat to the country’s sovereignty,” he warned.

Bashir Ahmed Bilour, Mian Iftikhar Hussain and other leaders took exception to NWFP government’s policies and alleged that it had resorted to creating a situation like Afghanistan in the province. They warned the provincial government to abstain from ruining the peace  and political culture of the NWFP and said that otherwise the ANP would use force.