PESHAWAR, Jan 6: Speakers at a seminar urged people of the smaller provinces to launch a move for the re-determination of their political status in the country because Punjab is not ready to accept their rights. The People’s Awareness Movement (PAM) on Friday organised a seminar on Kalabagh dam project at the press club here.

Haji Ghulam Ahmed Bilour, senior vice-president of the Awami National Party, said Pukhtuns of the country were opposed to the construction of the Kalabagh dam and praised members of the NWFP Assembly for adopting a unanimous resolution against the anti-people project.

Mr Bilour asked the Centre to honour the resolutions, passed by the NWFP, Sindh and Balochistan assemblies against the Kalabagh dam.

He said Pakistan came into being on the basis of a resolution adopted by a political gathering in Lahore, and Sindh became a unit of the federation of Pakistan through a resolution.

He warned: “If resolutions of NWFP, Sindh and Balochistan are not honoured, Pukhtuns will have to think about the Lahore Resolution.”

He alleged that Punjab had occupied the resources of the three smaller provinces and endorsed every unconstitutional action of adventurists.

The ANP leader said Pukhtuns would not allow Punjab to continue exploitation of their resources in the name of unity and brotherhood.

PPP provincial president Rahimdad Khan said that the federal government raised the controversial Kalabagh dam issue to cover up its negligence and disregard towards the Oct 8 quake survivors in the NWFP and Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

He said that the military rulers were offering constitutional and legal guarantees just to hoodwink people, and added that even the Constitution could not save itself from the military coups in the past.

He said pro-establishment political parties had no future in Pakistan and they were the supporters of President Gen Pervez Musharraf in every unpopular issue. He underlined the need for launching a united front to educate people about the losses from the Kalabagh dam.

Senator Raza Mohammad Raza of the Pukhtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party accused Punjab of unlawfully using water share of the NWFP.

He said that Punjab had sold out water of its three rivers, under Sindh Basin Treaty, to India and at present was trying to get control of the water of River Indus.

Anwar Kamal Khan Marwat of the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), Mukhtar Khan Yousufzai of the PMAP, Mian Iftikhar Hussain of the ANP and Moazzam Butt of the PML also spoke on the occasion.

The PAM also adopted a resolution against the construction of Kalabagh dam and demanded that the government should abandon it in the larger interest of the country.