Pakistan Muslim League-Q President and former Prime Minister Ch Shujaat Hussain has said that both Pakistan Peoples Party and PML-N governments committed an anti people act by blocking the construction of Bhasha dam on the river Indus.
He said the project was started by General Pervez Musharraf (retd) and PML-Q Chief Minister Punjab Ch Parvez Elahi in 2006. In a statement here on Sunday, the veteran politician said that leaders of both the parties are bound to answer why did they waste 10 precious years of the nation by not carrying on construction of Bhasha Dam knowing very well that the country was facing a serious water crisis.
He said that the Chief Justice of Supreme Court's order for immediate construction of Bhasha Dam is of historical importance and hopefully, whichever new government comes in after the general elections, it will implement this order in accordance with its spirit.
He pointed out that work on Bhasha Dam was started in 2006 during PML-Q government. It has been proved during recent proceedings of the Supreme Court that People Party and N-League governments had stopped the construction work but thanks to Almighty Allah, the Chief Justice has heard the petition of the nation and has issued an order for immediate construction of water reservoirs including Bhasha dam.
Ch Shujaat Hussain regretted that the judiciary had to do the work of politicians and elected governments since these institutions were not performing their duties such as constructions of water reservoirs on which depends security and existence of any country.
He said that back in 1966, the World Bank in its report had warned Pakistan government that by 1990 Pakistan will need another dam of Mangla and Tarbela storage capacity. The politicians are responsible for not building the most feasible Kalabagh Dam which would have provided cheap electricity at the rate of Rs 2.50 per unit and brought hundreds of thousands of acres more land under cultivation.
Ch Shujaat Hussain said Ch Parvez Elahi during his five years tenure as CM Punjab had paid full attention to the construction of dams, 45 small dams were constructed at the cost of Rs 11 billion which brought more than 15 thousand acres of barren land in Jhelum, Chakwal, Attock and Rawalpindi under cultivation.
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