President Pervez Musharraf has summoned water and power minister Liaquat Ali Jatoi and technical committee on water resources (TCWR) chairman A.N.G. Abbasi on Wednesday to know reasons behind latter's resignation, it is reliably learnt. Abbasi reportedly resigned from the chairmanship of the committee a few days ago, before completing the long-awaited report on the proposed construction of major water reservoirs, especially the controversial Kalabagh dam. Some of the officials were of the view that Abbasi was not feeling comfortable for the last few weeks, due to invisible pressure from Sindhi nationalists, who are against the dam, and conveyed his reservations to the water and power minister, a few days before submitting his resignation.
It is being indicated that the President would ask Abbasi to continue to work till finalisation of report, which would provide a base for the formal announcement of Kalabagh dam.
The ministry of water and power, in its policy, has also suggested that construction work on at least two major reservoirs should be started as early as possible. The policy, which was a pre-condition of the World Bank's PRSC-II, would be taken up by the federal cabinet as early as possible.