THATTA, April 13: President Gen Pervez Musharraf emphasised the need for building more water reservoirs for meeting future requirements on Saturday as he kicked off his referendum campaign in Sindh from Thatta whose economy and ecology had been ravaged by lack of water downstream Indus and inroads made by the sea.

Attired in shalwar kameez and Sindhi patka, President Musharraf was greeted by a sizable crowd when he arrived at the Quaid-i-Azam Stadium Makli, flanked by the Sindh governor and Commander V Corps.

Seeking validation of his policies, and perhaps of the role of military in the country’s governance, besides continuation as president for a five-year term, President Musharraf’s choice of Thatta to begin his mass contact campaign in Sindh was meaningful because a large number of candidates enjoying support of the mainstream political parties had lost in the local body elections held last August.

Claiming that referendum is not unconstitutional President Musharraf said: “I am seeking people’s support and placing my track record before them to elicit their support. What else is democracy.” He added that those who were opposed to the exercise were trying to create instability and dissension.

“I will not allow them to create chaos and will put them down if they persisted,” said President Musharraf.

In the backdrop of continuing controversy over water distribution between Punjab and Sindh, main thrust of his address was on the need for building more water reservoirs to cater for the future rising demands and dwindling reserves.

Gen Musharraf said owing to silting, capacity of Tarbela and Mangla dams was declining every year and by 2010 the loss would be almost equivalent to Mangla dam capacity.

He said one solution was that provinces should get water according to their “rights” while the second option was to build more reservoirs. He urged the people to understand this and support his policies in this regard.

The president also referred to the RBOD project being built at a cost of Rs14 billion and said that amended design would restore Manchar Lake’s ecology and save the ecology of Thatta region.

He also referred to Rs10 billion Reni canal project which would be commenced soon and would irrigate about 300,000 acres.

The biggest project was Rs42 billion Sehwan Barrage project from which six canals would take care of 2.5 million acres.

These projects, he said, would irrigate about four million acres of land in the province.

Contradicting critics of his policies with regard to water, President Musharraf said if there was no water why would his government commit so much of amount for these projects?

He also claimed that his government was the first to take practical steps for exploiting Thar coal reserves with Chinese assistance for producing cheap electricity that would change the life of the people for the better.

It may be pointed out that a power plant based on Thar coal was planned at Keti Bandar during Benazir government and work on a harbour was also inaugurated. However, the whole scheme was rolled-back by the Nawaz Sharif government.

The president reiterated the justification for choosing the difficult course of referendum saying he believed it was necessary for strengthening democracy and political dispensation.

Claiming that he had never deceived the people nor lied to them, President Musharraf, using the same parlance used by politicians, promised that he would not disappoint them.

He claimed that owing to his regime’s policies economy had been put back on the rail and the country, which was on the verge of being declared a country harbouring terrorists, was now being acknowledged by the international community for playing an important role in the maintenance of peace.

Referring to the local government system, he said those who were opposing it, were plunderers of national resources and were not in favour of the people becoming emancipated and all powerful in real terms.

Gen Musharraf, however, did not take the names of the exiled leaders of the Pakistan People’s Party and PML(N) for whom he had said that they had no role in country’s politics because they had plundered the national wealth.

President Musharraf, who claimed being a Sindhi, said he would do everything to provide water downstream Kotri and also promised to look into the demand of providing relief to the people of the area with regard to loan obtained from the Agricultural Development Bank.

He said since this issue related to all the provinces, it would be examined on Pakistan level so that all poor could be benefited.

The president held out a promise for the construction of an overhead bridge at Gaghar railway crossing, dual carriageway on the National Highway, Sui gas connection to Thatta and electrification of 200 villages in the district.

The president said that the army, the rangers and Coast Guard would recruit the locals with a view to providing more employment to the people.

President Musharraf said under the Khushhal Pakistan Programme, about 1,100 schemes costing Rs16 billion were already under execution in Sindh and added that his government had earmarked Rs450 million for the repair and renovation of the shrine of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar at Sehwan.

Earlier, Sindh Governor Mohammadmian Soomro drew attention of the people towards mismanagement of the past governments and compared to “good governance of Gen Musharraf’s government and said new job opportunities would be created in the province soon.

District Nazim Syed Shafqat Shirazi highlighted problems of the area and declared support to Gen Musharraf.