Chairman Wapda has suggested that operation of Kalabagh dam should be with the Sindh province. This will set a wrong precedent. The K-P government is already laying claims to Tarbela dam. Are we admitting that the federal bodies Wapda and IRSA are not above board in carriage of their duties, which is certainly not the case.
Instead of acceding to grievances of the provinces, which may or may not be justified, our effort should be to ensure complete transparency in the working of the federal bodies to gain the confidence of all the stakeholders.
In any case, Sindh already has three votes in IRSA against one vote for Punjab i.e. the Sindh delegate, the federal delegate also from Sindh, and the Balochistan delegate who openly votes along with the Sindh delegate because Sindh controls the river water supply to Balochistan.
Large dams are federally funded national assets and are to be used for the benefit of all the stakeholders and not to be put under control of any one province.
Engr Khurshid Anwer,
Lahore
