PESHAWAR, Jan 2: The Pakistan People’s Party has said that the Council of Common Interests is the only competent forum which can take any decision about Kalabagh dam’s construction.

Speaking at a news conference here at the Opposition’s chamber on Monday, PPP MPA Abdul Akbar Khan said that neither the president nor the prime minister could take on arbitrary decision on mega projects like Kalabagh dam. The 1973 Constitution had authorized to the CCI to decide about mega projects, he added.

Article 154 of the Constitution, he said, empowered the CCI to formulate and regulate policies in relation to matters in Part II of the Federal Legislative List, which included Wapda and other corporation and authorities.

The consensus among CCI members, on an issue, was compulsory to execute it, otherwise the issue would be decided by the joint sitting of parliament, he added.

Mr Khan said the federal government was trying to localize the issue of Kalabagh dam, saying that three districts would be inundated if the dam was constructed.

‘‘If the Kalabagh dam is

executed as a replacement to the Tarbela Dam, then the NWFP will have to surrender its claim of net hydel profit,’’ he said.

He said the federal government had distributed the Indus river water among the four provinces and no water had been left for the Kalabagh dam.

He said the federal government had not implemented any accord so far in connection with the NHP and water share of the province.