NAROWAL: Federal Minister for Interior and Planning, Development and Reforms Ahsan Iqbal says the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) was not active in the last four-and-a-half years and one wonders what happened to it now which made it become active when the general elections are about two months away.

“The bureau is acting against an elected government and the people might themselves see that it’s pre-poll rigging. The coming elections should be uncontroversial and transparent and if it does not happen, the investment of billion of rupees will become a bottleneck for the country, crashing its economy,” the minister warned while addressing a public meeting at village Raiyya Goraya on Sunday.

He said the government had purchased land worth Rs100bn to construct Diamer-Basha Dam whose construction would hopefully start this year.

Ahsan warns that controversial polls may crash economy

“Pakistan has formulated its first-ever water policy by taking the provinces into confidence and now federation and the provinces will have to frame the policy on water resources jointly.”

Mr Ahsan warned of more water shortage if Pakistan did not store water, expressing hope in the same breath that the nation would act on strategy of the government unanimously.

“No mega water project was planned after Ghazi-Brotha dam and besides Diamer-Basha dam, this government would construct Ahmad Dam in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa which would protect Charsadda and Nowshera against floods,” he said and added that by sharing water policy with provinces, the federal government had won the confidence of the provinces and the water problem was likely to be resolved with unity.

The minister termed the electricity generation far better than 2013, however, saying that there was a sudden increase in temperature in March and there was a load on the system and the issue would be rectified within days. He assured the public that there would be no power loadshedding in 2018.

“We request all the institutions concerned to let the country make progress without destabilising its system through interference in the political process,” Ahsan Iqbal said

All three major parties were standing before the nation today and the people would analyse their abilities themselves by looking at the condition of Sindh, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, he added.

He said Imran Khan was chanting slogans of change but he would be ashamed to see the development of Lahore as compared to Peshawar.

Published in Dawn, April 2nd, 2018