LAHORE, Dec 22: The Punjab PPP will join hands with party’s Sindh leader Qaim Ali Shah when he visits the city to protest against the construction of Kalabagh Dam. This was stated by provincial information secretary Naveed Chaudhry while speaking at a press conference along with central deputy information secretary Altaf Qureshi and Iqbal Sialvi here on Thursday.

“People of the Punjab will be siding with their brethren in other provinces in fight against dictatorial decisions of the present regime,” he said.

The Punjab executive council of the party met earlier in the day and adopted a resolution opposing the water reservoir without taking into confidence all federating units. Otherwise the project would endanger solidarity of the country, it feared.

It instead supported construction of small dams whose planning had been done during the second tenure of Ms Benazir Bhutto.

The council expressed its concern at ongoing army “operation” in Balochistan and demanded immediate end to it.

Referring to various directions issued by the Supreme Court to the Punjab government on issues like kite-flying, lavish spending on marriages, etc., it observed that if the province had to be run by the apex court then the government should resign.

Mr Chaudhry said the party had taken notice of PML-N leader Khwaja Saad Rafiq’s anti-PPP statements and had lodged a formal protest with the ARD leadership.

Answering a question, he said adjustments in elections for offices of naib nazims at tehsil and district level the same ARD formula would be adopted that had been implemented in earlier three phases of local polls.

He told reporters that various functions and workers conventions would mark 77th birth anniversary of late prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto from next month. In Lahore, the function would be held on Jan 5.

PML-N: Syed Zafar Ali Shah of the PML-N says construction of Kalabagh dam should be halted until real representatives of the masses take charge of the country’s affairs.

He was speaking at a joint press conference along with MNA Khwaja Saad Rafiq here on Thursday.

“The present assemblies should be dissolved immediately to introduce a government of national consensus for holding fair elections. The dam issue should be left to the people to be elected in these polls.”

The ruling coalition wanted to adopt a resolution in parliament favouring Kalabagh dam but neither the incumbent parliament nor the four provincial assemblies were authorized to approve or disapprove the project, he claimed.

The Khwaja said Gen Musharraf was the main hurdle in the development of a national consensus so the army ruler must resign.

Minto: National Workers Party chief and former president of the Supreme Court Bar Association Abid Hasan Minto has suggested a political solution to the water reservoirs issue by holding dialogue on an equal basis among all federating units.

In a statement on Thursday, he said the step first required cancelling the “unilateral” decision of the government to construct Kalabagh dam.

He said the matter should be referred to the Council of Common Interests which was a constitutional body but has never been activated.