ISLAMABAD, Dec 21: Punjab will agree to any constitutional guarantees aimed at removing apprehensions of Sindh and the NWFP about the Kalabagh dam, including the guarantee of adequate supply of water.

“Punjab is even willing to guarantee that it would accept lower than its due share in the distribution of water among the provinces. This is how the ruling party is working out its strategy on the Kalabagh dam issue,” Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, president of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (PML), told Dawn on Wednesday.

He said the final round of informal and formal talks on the issue would begin with President Pervez Musharraf meeting the opponents of the Kalabagh Dam in Sindh on Thursday.

Official sources said that after concluding his consultations with the opponents, the president would announce the construction of the dam in January 2006 “as the military and civilian establishments had decided to go ahead with the project, come what may”. He said that time had come to take “bold and unpopular decisions” in the larger interest of the nation.

“Punjab is conceding by offering the required constitutional guarantees. We cannot help if someone still doubts the intentions of Punjab and its people,” said the former prime minister.

Chaudhry Shujaat said that vested interests, particularly in Sindh, were using the issue as a “bargaining chip”.

“Even staunch opponents are convinced of the need of the dam but they do not want any canal to be built to draw water from it. We are ready to find a way out of this,” he said. “Unnecessary opposition will not be tolerated,” he warned and said that those who were against the building of big dams and reservoirs cared for their own vested interests and not those of the people.

“Indeed Punjab, being the biggest province, has the weakest position and some people are out to use this against us.”

Official sources said that President Musharraf wanted to announce the building of Kalabagh dam next month, preferably before the Senate balloting set for January 3, or before the term of the new senators started on March 12, 2006.