PESHAWAR, Nov 30: The Pukhtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party has urged the Sindhi, Baloch, Seraeki and Pukhtoon nationalist forces unite on one platform against the construction of the controversial Kalabagh dam, which, it says, may turn the NWFP and Sindh into wastelands.

President Gen Pervez Musharraf would open a Pandora’s box by issuing another statement on the construction of Kalabagh dam, the party said in a statement on Wednesday. It was an insult to the three provincial assemblies, Sindh, NWFP and Balochistan, which had adopted unanimous resolutions against the construction of the Kalabagh dam. The PMAP said that it was its considered opinion that the Kalabagh dam would benefit the Punjab and bring destruction to the Pukhtoonkhwa and Sindh.

On March 31, Sindhi, Baloch, Seraeki and Pukhtoon nationalists observed a complete strike across the country and rejected the Kalabagh dam. It accused Gen Musharraf of ‘playing in the hands of Punjabi rulers’.

In a separate statement, Awami National Party has warned the rulers against creating unrest in the country and said that construction of the dam would turn the NWFP into marshes and Sindh into a desert.

The ANP provincial president Bashir Ahmed Bilour said whenever the rulers confronted a forward bloc inside the king’s party they tried to dilute the political climate by issuing controversial statements. He said ‘divide and rule’ had been an old method of the rulers.

He warned that his party would not allow the rulers to submerge their precious lands under the Kalabagh dam. He said the rulers should not consider Punjab as Pakistan and asked them to refrain from sowing seeds of hatred among provinces.

He advised the rulers to honour the resolutions adopted by the three provincial assemblies against the construction of the controversial Kalabagh dam.