LAHORE, Jan 18: The Punjab Water Council on Wednesday rejected “Bhasha dam first” policy announced by President Pervez Musharraf terming it “against the national interest and counter-productive for agriculture.”

Office-bearers of the council, addressing a press conference, said the president had wasted time and money on two committees on water resources during the last three years and had played in the hands of nationalists.

Coordinator Hamid Malhi said that presidential somersault on the Kalabagh dam issue had stunned everybody. He had asked the people from Punjab not to agitate in favour of Kalabagh dam because he himself was the biggest advocate and “would take care of things.

“The people from Punjab were quiet on the issue depending on him. Now, he had betrayed the Punjab and farmers of Pakistan, Mr Malhi said.

One wondered why the president had formed two national level committees and wasted huge money and time on them if he had to take this decision (construction of Bhasha dam before Kalabagh dam). During the last three years, he built a pro-Kalabagh dam momentum and did the same in first part of his Tuesday speech but then dragged his feet.

Mr Malhi said the Punjab government was also guilty of betraying farmers and had no moral and political justification to remain in the office. Those who were not ready to defend rights of Punjab should not be ruling the province. During next general elections, farmers’ bodies would make this failure of the Punjab government an issue and try to drive out cowards who had not been able to defend their rights.

He also warned that Punjab farmers would now not allow anyone to play with the distribution mechanism. The federal government might put pressure on provincial governments to reconsider water distribution because there would be more water when dams built. The Punjab farmers would not allow that to happen, he warned.

Ms Rabia Sultan was of the view that the president had never appeared to be sincere for the Kalabagh dam issue. Rather, it was used for deflecting attention from other problems. If his decision was motivated by parochial provincial considerations, he was guilty of ignoring his national duties.

She said the president had also ignored realities of Bhasha dam, which he himself been telling everybody for the last three years.