PESHAWAR, Dec 8: The Pukhtunkhawa Milli Awami Party has urged Islamabad to drop the idea of building the Kalabagh dam as the NWFP, Sindh and Balochistan were opposed to it and their respective assemblies have rejected it through several unanimous resolutions.

Speaking at a meeting held to mark the 30th death anniversary of Abdus Samad Khan, a noted freedom fighter, at the Nishter Hall on Thursday, PMAP chairman Mehmood Khan Achakzai said that there was no need for starting talks on the dam. He said his party would not “be a party to the issue”.

“We will not allow any person to submerge our land under the Kabul and Sindh rivers,” he added.

He blamed the Punjab for the poverty and backwardness of the Pukhtuns and other smaller nations, he added.

Describing Kalabagh dam as a technical issue, he said a military general had made it an issue for Pukhtuns and Sindhis. He said Pakistan could not be run through secret agencies any more as the regional geo-political situation had changed. He prayed for the progress and prosperity of other nations, but opposed the exploitation of Pukhtuns by one province.

PMAP provincial chief Mukhtar Khan Yusufzai, Dr Said Alam Khan Mehsud and Bashir Khan Matta also spoke the life and deeds of the Khan-i-Shaheed (Abdus Samad Khan), killed in bomb blast in 1975 in Quetta. They paid rich tributes to the late Khan who struggled for the Pukhtun unity and spent a total of 33 years in various prisons during his political struggle against the British Raj.

Mr Achakzai proposed to the government to construct small dams on the river Swat for the power generation purpose, if it wanted to supply inexpensive electricity to the people. He said the Swat region was full of mineral wealth and precious stones like emerald, but its own people were constrained to work in coal mines in Balochistan.

He blamed civilian and military bureaucracy for denying Pukhtuns their lawful authority over their resources and their constitutional and legal rights. He said Pukhtuns would never accept the supremacy of one nation over other smaller nations.

Mr Achakzai urged the government to hold general elections on adult franchise basis, in the agency councils and transfer all administrative powers being exercised by political agents to elected jirgas. He proposed that the NWFP governor should be an elected person, who would head the elected agency councils as chief executive of the Fata region.

He said his party opposed what he termed unconstitutional government headed by Gen. Pervez Musharraf. He alleged that bandits were running the government in Pakistan.

The meeting also adopted resolutions against the construction of Kalabagh dam, renaming of the Pukhtun homeland from Chitral to southern Pukhtunkhawa as Pukhoonistan or Afghania, holding of elections for a new constituent assembly which should draft a new constitution in accordance with the Pakistan Resolution.