THE World Bank has come under severe criticism from international development lenders for not funding the $12 billion Diamer-Bhasha dam, the ‘highest priority project’.

According to reports, the forthcoming strategic dialogue between the US and Pakistan ahead of a fresh round of discussions by the Water Sector Task Force of the Friends of Democratic Pakistan would focus on Islamabad’s precise plans for water sector reforms and the World Bank’s lack of interest in the Diamer-Bhasha dam project.

The two events are expected early next month.

I don’t agree with the report that Washington regards the Bhasha dam as the highest priority project. No mega development-related project has so far been funded by our ‘first’ ally, except for its generosity to extend some conditional donations.

One remembers Yashwant Sinha’s meeting with the then secretary of state Collin Powell in which the then Indian foreign minister got the assurance that Pakistan would not build the Kalabagh dam.

It is not believable that the Bhasha Dam project is Washington’s priority, too. The World Bank follows its diktats. Had the United States been serious, the Bhasha dam project should have been started much earlier, if the Kalabagh dam was not the option.

ALYA ALVI Rawalpindi