QUETTA, Dec 1: Speaker of the Balochistan Assembly Mohammad Aslam Bhootani has said he will not allow construction of the Hingol dam and land along the coast will not be alloted to the air force.

During a visit to the area on Monday, he criticised the forcible eviction of people from their hereditary land along the coastal highway.

Blaming the previous government for both the decisions, he said he had opposed them in the provincial assembly at that time. He said that the previous government had ignored his protests and allotted thousands of acres of land to the PAF.

However, he hoped that the federal and provincial governments would protect the people’s interest. Mr Bhootani said the provincial assembly had already rejected the Hingol dam plan because it would submerge a revered site of Hinduism, the Hinglaj Mata Devi Temple.

He said that allotment of land to air force personnel would deprive local fishermen of the source of their livelihood and throw them out of their own property.

Mr Bhootani said his voters had already sacrificed enough land for the army’s proving grounds and air force’s firing ranges in the Sonmiani area and any further dislocation of local people would be unjustified.

Thanking Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Raisani for helping to maintain the status quo on the issue of transfer of land to the PAF, he appealed to President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to scrap both projects in the interest of the people.