It is sorry to see that a certain lobby is bent upon proving that the people of three out of four provinces are enemies of Pakistan because they are opposing the controversial Kalabagh dam in Punjab. The elected Provincial Assemblies of three out of four provinces have already passed about nine resolutions against the construction of this dam.
Needless to mention here the same lobby in the past tried to label that majority people (56 per cent) of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) as enemies of Pakistan. It appears the said lobby has not learnt the lesson from our past.
MOHAMMAD KHAN SIAL
Karachi
(II)
This has a reference to a letter published on 22 June by M Rafi Nasim stating the need for a referendum on Kalabagh dam in view of the worsening situation of load-shedding and water shortage. In fact, the scribe had moved a constitutional petition No 37 in the year 2000 through Barrister Zafarullah Khan of Watan Party in the Supreme Court requesting for a referendum on Kalabagh dam. Subsequently, notices were issued for comments to parties concerned in 2006 but no hearing has been held since then. Meanwhile, India is building scores of dams on the three Eastern rivers of Chanab, Jhelum ad Indus flouting the terms of Indus Water Treaty wherein projects only on run of the river basis could be built that would not entail storage of water that could interrupt water supplies to Pakistan. Our failure to build the Kalabagh dam has encouraged India to build storage dams on our rivers to generate power.
It is high time that our Supreme Court orders a referendum on Kalabagh dam to decide the matter once for all to save Pakistan from twin menace of water and power shortage.
DR MUHAMMAD YAQOOB BHATTI
Lahore
