ISLAMABAD, June 2: The government has decided to constitute a working group to initiate a consensus-building process for the construction of Rs250 billion Kalabagh Dam.

A senior government official told Dawn that President Pervez Musharraf had decided to form the working group which would initially consist of opponents of Kalabagh Dam from Sindh and proponents from the Punjab.

The group would begin dialogue on technical issues and address controversial points to reach a consensus through adjustments here and there, where necessary.

The president has already held a meeting with Rasul Bakhsh Paleejo, the head of Awami Tehrik, recently and “found him a very reasonable man,” the official quoted the president as saying.

The nomination from Punjab and formal constitution of the group is expected after the return of the president from his visit to Central Asian states.

While Paleejo is expected to lead the nationalist group opposing construction of Kalabagh Dam, Information Minister Nisar Memon would head the working group as a neutral man hailing from Sindh and representing the federal government who could hammer out the differences.

When contacted, the information minister said he had not been informed about the decision made in this regard. He said he was also unaware of Paleejo’s meeting with the president.

The sources said that once the Sindh-Punjab group reached some broader understanding, it would be expanded to take the dialogue to the NWFP and Balochistan to evolve a complete consensus before the government really moves towards the construction of Kalabagh Dam.

The dam, originally conceived in 1953, has been facing strong opposition for the last three decades. The revised 915-feet height of the dam would have a gross storage capacity of 7.9 million acre feet (MAF).

It would produce around 2,400mw of electricity and irrigate over 600,000 acres through saving of around 26MAF water per annum out of a total 38MAF currently escaping below Kotri.

The president, the official said, recently told a meeting that funding for the project would not be a problem once the inter-provincial differences were hammered out and the project was launched.

The official indicated that since the project was to be completed in six to eight years, funding could be made available through Public Sector Development Programme allocations even if foreign funding did not come.

The move to form the working group has come following a proposal to refer to the Supreme Court all controversial water projects and related issues to resolve inter-provincial misunderstandings.

Initially, it was being viewed that the apex court would be requested under Article 184 or 186 of the Constitution to constitute a full bench for hearing all water-related controversies, including big dams and irrigation projects.

Under Article 184, the Supreme Court, to the exclusion of every other court, has the original jurisdiction in any dispute between any two or more governments and it will pronounce declaratory judgments only.

Under Article 186, if at any time, the president considers that it is desirable to obtain the opinion of the Supreme Court on any question of law which he considers of public importance, he may refer it to the Supreme Court for consideration. The Supreme Court will consider the issue so referred and report its opinion to the president.