Despite the antics of General Fazal-e-Haq, work on Kalabagh dam never stopped throughout the tenure of General Ziaul Haq.
World Bank and foreign consultants continued with consultancy work on the dam over a period of ten years, right up to 1986 when the project had to be put on the backburner. It was not a case of General Ziaul Haq paying heed to a political statement of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto, it was the very strong anti-dam sentiments she had aroused in Sindh and Punjab which put a spanner in the works.
It is these same sentiments which have made it impossible for any progress to be made on the dam despite Nawaz Sharif’s best efforts in the shape of the Water Apportionment Accord of 1991. Benazir Bhutto’s response to the Water Accord was to induct IPPs, not only for the short term but also for the medium term and even for the long term when actually the long term project at that time should have been Kalabagh dam. The pity is that people being unaware of all this will once again vote that party into power.
KHURSHID ANWER
Lahore
