In support of what I had said in my last letter, let me quote Ghulam Mustafa Khar, Benazir’s minister for power and irrigation. After he had parted company with PPP he gave an interview to the Jang daily in 1997. He said he and the prime minister had gone to a cabinet meeting in Sindh to canvass for Kalabagh dam as he had done in the other assemblies.
When he mentioned Kalabagh dam, the chief minister stopped him saying please don’t talk about Kalabagh dam, our high command has rejected it once and for all. Benazir interceded to say, Shah Saheb you are right, “I was against the dam because it was Zia’s Dam, but now that my experts have briefed me, I believe it is essential for Pakistan and also for Sindh.”
In the same interview, Khar also said that as he was going to have a lunch with Asif Zardari in the Governor House, Benazir Bhutto came in saying, “Khar sab, mubarak ho ham aap ka dam banna rahe hein.” At another place he claimed that he received a letter from the prime minister congratulating him for his efforts on Kalabagh dam but cautioning him not to go public until she had prepared grounds for it in the party.
The dam was very much on the cards at that time. But after going out of power, she started opposing the dam again because now it had become Nawaz’s dam. When Nawaz Sharif made a television appeal for it, she sat mum and let the people in Sindh and Punjab raise such a howl that Nawaz Sharif had to back out.
The people in Sindh and Punjab being unaware that as prime minister she had agreed to build the dam keep on opposing Kalabagh dam because of her earlier opposition. Therein lies the tragedy for the 18 crore people of Pakistan.
In opposing governments, our politicians never differentiate between what is purely political and what is best for the national interests.
KHURSHID ANWER
Lahore