KARACHI, Jan 15: President General Pervez Musharraf said on Sunday that he will resolve issues, including those of Balochistan and water reservoirs, with courage rather than sweeping them under the carpet and “come out victorious”. He was speaking at the inauguration of 620-ft high state-of-the-art port fountain (water jet) built by the Karachi Port Trust at a cost of Rs225 million near the Clifton beach.

He said the government could have ignored the problems and shoved them under the carpet like other governments did in the past but that would not have resolved the problems.

“We want to address all the issues which had been swept under carpet in the past, (because) I don’t believe in doing that,” he noted.

“We have to face them. We have to catch the bull by the horn. We will solve them. If we have a resolve, if we have the courage and if we have the brain, we will be able to do it,” he said.

“But if we keep doing what we have been doing in the past we will not be able to resolve issues,” he added.

Referring to the situation in Balochistan, he said the government would resolve the issue and bring peace there. “If we have a problem in Balochistan....shove it under the carpet. I can very well do that and feel comfortable. No Sir, we will not act that way. We will bring peace in Balochistan,” he vowed.

Referring to the water issue, he said people will die if the government did not go for dams. He said the country will go dry by 2015 to 2020 and people will see the impact in their lifetime of how a nation starts going down.

He said people see it as a technical issue, but it is an economic issue. “One dam means about 1.5 to 2 per cent of GDP because of facilitation of agriculture and electricity. So, we have to face these issues boldly and execute (the dams plan) because it is in the interest of Pakistan and the people of Pakistan, especially the poor, who had unfortunately been misled,” he added.—APP