Kalabagh Dam

The controversy regarding the construction of Kalabagh dam has been raging on since Zia ul Haq’s period and all successive governments have failed to resolve the issue. ANP fears that the reservoir lake will submerge most of the land in the KPK province including the city of Nowshera, and the Sindhis apprehend that as lower riparian they will be deprived of their due share of  water from the river Indus. Both provinces think that only Punjab will stand to gain from it. The project is neither fully abandoned nor looks to be resumed in the near future and  this state of uncertainty has cost  the nation heavily both in terms of time lost and the money spent on it so far. A simple technical matter has been un-necessarily turned in to a political issue. I think the politicians are not the right people to decide such technical matters and it should be left purely to the prof essionals and technical experts to do it. As a first step, therefore, let their be a series of open debates/discussions on TV between the panels of experts, the exponents and the opponents so that the entire nation becomes aware of its details thoroughly. I am sure it will help a great deal in forming a general opinion of the masses for or against it, who will then prevail upon their representatives to take the correct and agreed decision. Unfortunately, I don’t know how our politicians think that parliament can take a decision about any matter whether it falls within its purview or not. A case in point - Parliament declaring Qadiyanis as non-Muslims. A matter entirely religious that cannot and should not be decided by the count of vote. It was a matter purely for the religious scholars – I mean real scholars – to decide.   

Let, therefore, the nation decide to have or not to have Kalabagh dam.

Col. Riaz Jafri (Retd)