The government will take fresh initiatives to develop national consensus on Kalabagh dam as big water reservoirs are badly needed to overcome the worsening energy crisis country is facing.
"We have decided to make efforts afresh for consensus on Kalabagh," said the Caretaker Minister for Inter-Provincial Co-ordination (IPC) Dr Muhammad Amjad on Monday. "More water reservoirs including Kalabagh Dam will be built, but this will be done with consensus," said the minister in a news briefing after the meeting of provincial secretaries of the IPC division.
He said that the cabinet had already approved the reconstitution of Council of Common Interest (CCI). He added that the IPC division was in favour of regular meetings of the CCI.
The provincial secretaries meeting was part of preparations being made in connection with holding of a conference in Lahore in the second week of February on confidence building measures to strengthen inter-provincial harmony.
The Lahore conference will also be attended by Caretaker Federal Ministers for Water and Power, Commerce, Interior, provincial ministers for IPC, provincial secretaries and representatives of chambers of commerce of the four provinces. The conference would discuss issues including distribution of revenue among the provinces.
The minister said a multi-facet formula on revenue distribution is under consideration. The proposed formula is more stressful on some other factors instead of the current revenue distribution system that is based on the principle of strength of population of the province.
He said that Kalabagh Dam was a purely technical issue and this project should not be used for political purposes. Dr Amjad said that no major water reservoir was built after Tarbela and Mangla Dams thus the country was facing acute energy crisis. Amjad said the government would try to remove apprehensions of the stakeholders, as opponents to the construction of Kalabagh dam would also be invited to the conference.
The minister said the meeting would formulate ways and means to promote inter-provincial harmony among the federating units and to resolve their issues and concerns from the platform of the ministry.
He said that the conference would formulate recommendations and suggest measures for strengthening integration and harmony among the provinces form the viewpoint of business community.
The conference will make business specific recommendations to National Disaster Management Authority to protect valuable private national business assets. It will also propose specific preventive law and order steps to the law enforcement agencies for protection of industrial sites and factories, he added.
The Minister said that the conference would also recommend appointment of liaison officers of each chamber of commerce and industry to interact with provincial secretaries IPC for action and feedback. The conference will provide business-oriented inputs into provincial commerce trade development plans for consideration by appropriate government forums.
About the draft provincial autonomy bill, he said the Sindh and NWFP have sought a number of amendments in the draft bill. About the agenda of the one-day conference, he said the first session would be on energy crisis in which construction of new water reservoirs in the country would be discussed. In the second session, law and order situation would be discussed while in the third and final session, the corporate business-related issues would come under discussion.
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