PESHAWAR, June 7: The Khidmatgar Qaumi Jirga appealed to all the political parties, civil society organisations and the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal government to join forces in order to foil the federal government’s plan of declaring Warsak Dam a property of the Khyber Agency.

It said that a public meeting would be held on June 10 to decide on the future line of action in this regard.

The land on which the Warsak Dam was built in 1954-60, with the financial assistance of a Canadian firm, belonged to the Khalil clan. The Khalils were the permanent dwellers of Peshawar valley and did not belong to a tribal agency, claimed the participants of the meeting.

The dam was built over 345 acres of land and this could be proved through land transfer documents available at the revenue department and offices of the DRO Peshawar, they said.

Speaking at a news conference at the Peshawar Press Club, Arbab Sheharyar Khan, patron-in-chief of the jirga said that through an advertisement recently appearing in a local newspaper a controversy was generated by proposing amendments in the demarcation of the dam, saying whether the dam was located in Khyber Agency or the NWFP.

He said that it was unfortunate that after the passage of 60 years, the government was now proposing amendments and wishing to declare the Warsak Dam a property of the Khyber Agency.

He said: “It is crystal clear that Warsak Dam is the property of NWFP.”

Unfortunately, he said some Wapda officials and Fata MNAs and senators are bent upon creating misunderstanding between the central and provincial governments over the ownership of the dam, and added that all such designs would be foiled.

Sheharyar said it was a conspiracy of some hidden hands to deprive NWFP of Warsak Dam’s royalty and the rights over the 240 megawatt electricity being produced by the dam. “We will fight and use all means to resist the plan and we have decided to approach the court of law in this regard,” he said.

To evolve a unified stance, all political parties, civil society organisations have been asked to participate in a public meeting being held on Sunday at 9am.