KARACHI: The Kalabagh dam is not in the interest of the country and the issue, which has already been rejected by three provinces, is now a closed chapter and should not be raised anymore, said a Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leader on Monday.

Talking to media outside the Sindh Assembly, Leader of the Opposition Firdous Shamim Naqvi of the PTI, while opposing the Kalabagh dam, stressed the need for building other dams in the country to meet the growing water shortages. “If new water reservoirs are not built in the country there would be no water to meet the needs of the people.”

He was accompanied by party leader Haleem Adil Shaikh, Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan leader Kanwar Naveed and Grand Democratic Alliance’s Hasnain Mirza.

He also stressed the need for building the Bhasha dam.

Mr Sheikh of the PTI said that the Pakistan Peoples Party was trying to raise the “non-issue” of the Kalabagh dam just to cover up its bad governance, corruption and failure to foresee the future needs of water despite the fact that it remained in power for a decade.

He said that the appeal made by Prime Minister Imran Khan for raising funds was only for the Diamer-Bhasha dam and Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi had already presented a clear stance in parliament in this regard.

MQM-P’s Kanwar Naveed said that due to acute shortage of water, it was feared that the country would be facing a drought this year also. He said the Kalabagh dam was not in the interest of the nation.

GDA lawmaker Mirza said that the Sindh Assembly had rejected the Kalabagh dam four times in the past, and now this was for a fifth time that “we have presented a resolution to totally reject it one more time”.

Earlier, Mr Naqvi along with other opposition leaders drafted a resolution against the Kalabagh dam and submitted it to the Sindh Assembly’s secretariat before the beginning of Monday’s proceedings of the house.

Published in Dawn, September 25th, 2018