Punjab, Kazim Pirzada irrigation minister has asked for the construction of the Kalabagh dam in the middle of the continuous controversy on the construction of six channels on the Indo River.
Speaking in a private news channel, Pirzada said: “The Kalabagh dam must be built: 100 percent must be built. With respect to Sindh’s concerns about water scarcity, we are only saying that when there is an excess of water during floods, it must be stored.”
When asked about the resolutions approved by the three provincial assemblies, except Punjab, he replied: “We are participating in the policy on this issue without providing a logical argument. If a deposit is created, and Punjab, such as the upper riverside, the benefits, the Sindh and the Baluchistan, such as the lower riverside provinces, they will benefit. This is beneficial. This is beneficial for the whole country.”
Pirzada also supported the statements of the Punjab Information Minister, Bokhari Azma, that President Asif Ali Zardari had approved the construction of the six new channels.
The channel project has become a dispute bone between the government led by PML-N and its key ally, the PPP.
The PPP has vehemently opposed the project that was recently inaugurated by the Coas General Also Munir and the CM of Punjab Maryam Nawaz. The leadership of the PPP has not only expressed objections, but also participated in a war of words with the ruling party in the center and Punjab.
Just one day after the president of the PPP, Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, denounced the scheme as “unilateral” during a speech that marked the anniversary of the death of his grandfather Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, a new dispute between Punjab and Punjab and Sink information ministers.
In statements to the media in Lahore, Punjab Minister of Information, Azma Bukhari, responded to Bilawal, saying that his Rally rhetoric did not offer a real solution.
“If you can take the time to meet with the federal government on provincial budgets,” he joked, “he must also address the channel problem.”
Bukhari said the project had already received the presidential consent.
“It is documented, it is signed,” he said, making it clear that the project had an official support.
Accusing the PPP of interpreting politics with water, called the “unfortunate” movement and questioned the choice of the Bilawal scenario.
“Bilawal Bhutto shouldn’t talk about water solutions while standing in the demonstrations,” he said. “Before making accusations, verify the facts. This is the policy of the channel,” he said.
In response to Bokhari’s comments, Sindh’s information minister Sharjeel Inam Memon questioned his understanding of the president’s constitutional powers.
“Has [Bokhari] read the constitution? Do you know how to read the Constitution? “Memon said during a media talk in Karachi.
In addition, he questioned where he declared in the Constitution that the President had the authority to approve such development projects.
“If the federal government has sent it to the president for approval, then that was an incompetent movement,” he added.
“It is not his mandate, we are tired of telling this 100 times,” said Memon, emphasizing that the federal government had not followed the correct procedural route.
“If you have the approval documents, then you should be able to bring the minutes manufactured from the meeting,” he added.
The green initiative of Pakistan, with an estimated cost of $ 3.3 billion, aims to build six channels to water 1.2 million acres of arid land in southern Punjab. However, the project has fulfilled the growing resistance, first of the Nationalist groups of Sindhi and now of the PPP itself.
Five of the channels are planned on the Indo River, while the sixth will be built along the Sutlej River, aimed at supplying around 4,120 cusecs of water to the Cholistan desert in Punjab.
