There is a glaring case of betrayal of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province by the successive governments in depriving KP of its legitimate share of 14% of stored Indus waters by refusing as per Water Accord 1991 to support Kalabagh dam. This is because KP can only avail its share of water from KBD to irrigate 8 lac acres of Dera Ismail Khan district against its 5 per cent irrigated area of Pakistan at present. Even Balochistan has at present 7 per cent irrigated area of Pakistan. The KP politicians have thus deprived their province of irrigating 8 lac acres of virgin land in Dera Ismail Khan due to their destructive policies of keeping their people ignorant of the permanent loss of water which can’t be supplied to them from any dam other than KBD.
This simple process cannot be understood by the people of KP which has frozen any possibility of development in KP. Could one hope an honest and sane policy to emerge from KP given the forward looking government of PTI which is known for steering its people friendly polices so far betrayed by the erstwhile politicians that have ruled the roost in former NWFP and now KP? Merely changing the name of a province is no guarantee for ushering in a spate of progressive policies and programmes. It requires sagacious policies by wise leaders dedicated to the socio-economic development of the province shorn of anti-people polices dictated by vested interests only.
DR M YAQOOB BHATTI
Lahore