PESHAWAR, Dec 1: The president of the anti-Kalabagh Front, Haji Ghulam Ahmed Bilour, has described the Kalabagh dam as a ‘dead issue ’ and asked the government to avoide reviving a plan that has been rejected by three provinces. Addressing a news conference at the Press Club on Thursday, he said the nation was in a state of trauma because of the devastating earthquake and it was surprising that the government had chosen this time to divide the nation on a issue rejected by the three provincial assemblies.

He said Pukhtoon would not allow anyone to turn their lands into marshes. Awami Nation Party central vice-president Haji Mohammad Adeel, ANP deputy secretary general Afrasiab Khattak, noted lawyer Latif Afridi, ANP provincial secretary Mian Iftikhar Hussain and other party leaders were present on the occasion.

Haji Bilour said that the ill-conceived policies of successive rulers had caused unrepairable loss to the national integrity and unity in the past but they had learnt no lesson from the history.

He said that the rulers had forced the majority unit of former East Pakistan to part their ways from the exploitative band of the former West Pakistan in 1971.

He alleged that the rulers had betrayed the spirit of the Pakistan Resolution which had been the political foundation of the new country.

He said the successive rulers had promoted the cause of Punjab than the cause of Pakistan. Three provinces had been opposing the construction of the controversial Kalabagh dam but the Punjab was trying to impose its will on the smaller provinces in the name of national interest, Haji Bilour said.

The ANP leader thanked all the MPAs of the NWFP assembly, who had unanimously adopted resolutions against the construction of the controversial Kalabagh dam.

He said the lawmakers from Hazara and southern districts had always rejected the construction of the dam and termed it harmful for the province. To a question, Haji Bilour said federal ministers Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao and Liaquat Jatoi had not endorsed the construction of the Kalabagh dam.

He lauded the role of politicians from Sindh who were unison in their approach against the Kalabagh dam.

He appealed to the political parties to join hands with the ANP in its drive against the Kalabagh dam.