lahore-The benefit of rupee strengthening and decline in dollar value has not been passed on to common public as the prices of all imported items including petroleum products, which are directly linked to the dollar exchange rate, have not dropped. 
“The value of greenback has dropped by around 10 per cent and if govt is sincere to control inflation, it could easily reduce rates of petroleum products by at least 10 per cent. And if heavy taxes are removed the oil prices can be brought back to the level of 2007, leading to significant cut in power tariff automatically,” observed Institution of Engineers Pakistan Lahore centre chairman Engineer Khalid Sajjad.
He said that the government must bring back the price of furnace oil, diesel, kerosene oil & gas to a position of early 2007 for providing immediate relief to the public just by reducing the tax on the fuel, and bring prices of all commodities within the reach of common man. Moreover, arrange general referendum on top priority basis in all the provinces of Pakistan on the same day to get the public opinion regarding construction of Kalabagh Dam through Military. It is just some of the Politicians of doubtful integrity with ulterior motives who resist the construction of Kalabagh Dam while the whole nation is for it.
Engineer Khalid Sajjad said that Kalabagh Dam is the immediate, cheapest and best located substitute for generation through river Indus as shall cost only one billion dollars per years and complete within six years, costing a total of six billion dollars while providing more than 3500 megawatts of power. All the other substitutes, including Bhasaha, Dasu, Boonji tunnel etc are in pipe line and investigating stage. None of them can complete earliest than 12 to 20 years. Each Project shall be providing 4000 MW to 5000 MW each, of Electricity after a completion period of 15 to 20 years from now. There are other merits/ demerits, cost comparison under study at the moment on account of 500 or 750 KV transmission lines along the difficult terrain of KKH for transmitting power to the load centers. The best choice however is KALABAGH Dam technically and economically, with a maximum time requirement of 6 years. We are lucky to still have with us Engineer Shamsul Mulk who should be entrusted the job of construction of KBD.He said that borrowing heavily from IMF, World Bank without working out solution for its return has led us to a stage from where unfortunately there seems no reversal.