PESHAWAR, Sept 17: The Awami National Party (ANP) will establish contacts with leaders of nationalist political parties of Balochistan, Sindh and Punjab to evolve a joint strategy against the Kalabagh dam project, ANP leaders told Dawn here on Friday.

ANP's special committee constituted to further the party's position on the issue would shortly enter into negotiations with like-minded nationalist political forces of other provinces for launching a cohesive effort to pursue their common goal, i.e. block the execution of the dam project.

ANP's provincial secretary information Mian Iftikhar said that the ANP leaders, appeared optimistic about making the like-minded forces of other provinces agree to launch a joint struggle against the Kalabagh Dam - a project which it (ANP) thinks was harmful to the economic interest of the people of the NWFP.

The party was of the view that the Kalabagh Dam would destroy the agriculture sector in four of the central NWFP districts because of expected salinity. Similarly, scores of families in parts of Swabi and Nowshera districts that would submerge the proposed water reservoir would be under go displacement.

The Pukhtoon nationalist party's renewed efforts to woo like- minded political forces of other provinces have come in line with strong signals from Islamabad that the federal government would decide its course of action during the current year about the construction of a large dam at any one of the two proposed sites - Bhasha or Kalabagh.

In this respect, President Pervez Musharraf's recent statements about a decision on any of the Bhasha or Kalabagh dams provided an opportunity to the ANP's leadership to reactivate its mass contact campaign and start pursuing its endeavours to bring anti-Kalabagh Dam forces on single platform.

Its similar moves made in the recent past remained quite successful and leaders of important nationalist parties attended its public meetings and seminars that were directed against the construction of Kalabagh Dam.

"We would pursue our objective at two levels meant to mould public opinion and create cohesiveness among the like-minded political forces against the proposed dam," said Haji Adeel, party's vice president.

He said that apart from mobilizing public opinion within the NWFP against the construction of the Kalabagh Dam, the party would attempt to forge unity among the nationalists of the other three provinces who also consider the controversial dam project as detrimental to the interest of the people of their areas.

At the provincial level, mass contact campaign would be launched to mould public opinion against the dam. Whereas, mr Adeel said, at the national level a policy to bring nationalist forces at a single platform would be adopted to thwart federal government's possible moves of executing the disputed project.

"Seminars and public meetings with the support of other political forces would be held at the national level to highlight the consequences the construction of Kalabagh Dam would result in for smaller provinces," Mr Adeel said.

The party's decision to launch a concerted effort against the proposed dam, however, was not taken by its central executive committee. Rather, the decision came from the party's provincial executive committee which met few days back with the provincial chief Begum Nasim Wali in the chair.