Federal Information Minister Shaikh Rashid Ahmed has said that the issue of construction of dams will be debated in the Parliament and a publicity campaign will be launched from tomorrow (December 19) to highlight its importance.
Addressing a news conference here on Sunday, he said four options of new water reservoirs were under consideration of the government, ie Bhasha dam, Akhori dam, Munda dam and Kalabagh dam, and added that the issue would be debated in the Parliament.
"President Musharraf has also directed for making public the technical and parliamentary committees' reports on dams while the government is going to launch a formal publicity campaign for dams from Monday," he said. "Construction of new dams is a matter of life and death for the country, thus any negative propaganda in this regard is not in the national interest," he added.
"Our GDP rate is best and the country is on way to progress, but all this becomes useless when the county is moving towards a possible drought, due to paucity of water," he remarked.
He claimed that Sindh would be the major beneficiary of new water reservoirs, while NWFP and Punjab would be the hard-hitest provinces by detraction of population. From the year 2006, the country will start facing acute water shortage and drought while by 2020 it will be facing a water shortage of 20 million acre feet (MAFT).
"By improving our capacity of water reservoirs, we can irrigate 20-25 MAFT additional land, bringing the total irrigated land to 80 MAFT. "So construction of new water reservoirs is need of the hour and to save the country from the possible drought, all segments of the society should play their role," the minister said.
To a question about-facing opposition by the government on the issue from some of its own allies, Shaikh Rashid said 'when time comes, they will be in a position to express better views on the issue'.
"However, as far government efforts for seeking consensus of the provinces are concerned, they are one and we are trying to remove their reservations." The president will also be visiting Sindh for this purpose besides having an interaction with media in this regard. "Now construction of dams has become a political issue and it is no more a technical issue, therefore, the government is doing its best to deal with it accordingly," he added.
THREATS: When asked to comment on threats given by a political party to resign form the NWFP legislature, he said: "it will not happen, and even if it happened, the government had many substitutes in a such a situation." He said: "No one is indispensable in the country and making bitter decisions is need of the time, as it will benefit the entire nation."
About possibility of military operation in Balochistan, the minister said, "forget about military operations, but we will not allow war lords in the province."
About the possibility of a larger PML alliance before the coming elections, Shaikh Rashid said he was in favour of it. He, however, ruled out about the possibility of change in the presidentship of the party and said that Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain will continue to be head of the party. Asked about the political future of Benazir Bhutto, he said: "If she is sentenced by the Swiss court, she will have no more political role to play in Pakistan.
Commenting on the international community's response for rehabilitation of the earthquake victims, the minister said over 6 billion-dollar aid is more than the government's expectations.