Punjab Minister of Irrigation, Kazim Pirzada, called for the construction of the Kalabagh dam in the middle of the continuous controversy on the construction of six channels on the Industry River.
Speaking on a private news channel, Pirzada said: “The Kalabagh dam should be built – 100% it must be built. Regarding Sindh’s concerns about water shortages, we say that when there is an excess water during the floods, it should be stored.”
When it was questioned about the resolutions adopted by the three provincial assemblies, with the exception of Punjab, he replied: “We are committed to the policy on this question without providing a logical argument. If a reservoir is created, and Punjab, as a superior resident, the advantages, the Sindh and the Balutchistan, as the lower -rivened provinces, will also benefit. beneficial for the whole country. “
Pirzada also supported the claims of the Minister of Information of Punjab, Azma Bokhari, according to which President Asif Ali Zardari had approved the construction of the six new channels.
The canal project has become a discord between the government led by PML-N and its key ally, the PPP.
The PPP vehemently opposed the project recently inaugurated by General Coas Asim Munnir and the Punjab CM Maryam Nawaz. The management of the PPP not only expressed objections, but has also embarked on a war of words with the ruling party in the center and in Punjab.
One day just after PPP president Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari denounced the program as “unilateral” during a speech marking the birthday of his grandfather Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, a new dispute broke out between Punjab and Sindh’s information ministers.
Addressing the media of Lahore, the Minister of Punjab, Azma Bukhari, retaliated in Bilawal, claiming that his Rallye rhetoric offered no real solution.
“If he can take the time to meet the federal government on provincial budgets,” she joked, “he should also solve the channel problem”.
Bukhari stressed that the project had already received presidential consent.
“It is documented, it is signed,” she said, clearly indicating that the project had official support.
Accusing the PPP of doing politics with water, she called the “unhappy” movement and questioned the choice of the Bilawal scene.
“Bilawal Bhutto should not talk about water solutions while standing for rallies,” she said. “Before making accusations, check the facts. This is the policy of the canal,” she said.
In response to the remarks of Bokhari, the main minister of the Sindh of Information, Sharjeel Inam Memon, questioned his understanding of the constitutional powers of the president.
“Do you have [Bokhari] Read the Constitution? Do you know how to read the Constitution? “Said Memon in a media speech in Karachi.
He also asked where he was indicated in the Constitution that the president had the power to approve these development projects.
“If the federal government sent him to the president for approval, then it was an incompetent decision,” he added.
“It is not his mandate, we are tired of telling you that 100 times,” said Memon, stressing that the federal government had not followed the correct procedural path.
“If you have the approval documents, you should be able to provide the reported minutes of the meeting,” he added.
The initiative of Green Pakistan, with an estimated cost of $ 3.3 billion, aims to build six channels to irrigate 1.2 million acres of arid land in southern Punjab. However, the project encountered growing resistance – first of the nationalist groups Sindhi and now the PPP itself.
Five of the channels are planned on the Industry river, while the sixth will be built along the Sutlej river, intended to provide around 4,120 water records in the Cholistan desert in Punjab.
