RAHIM YAR KHAN
Kalabagh dam is inevitable for the needs of the country but there are also 12 other suitable places where new dams could be built in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Gilgat-Baltistan and Kashmir, said Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Syed Khursheed Shah while talking to journalists at the residence of PPP district President Engineer Javed Akbar Dhiloon here on Sunday.
The PPP stalwart pointed out that first imprudent Pakistani leaders sold three rivers to India and now the country was losing 800,000 cusec water by throwing it into the sea. Shah said that an All Parties Conference (APC) should be convened on water and foreign policy issues as new global changes had been occurred, adding that foreign experts and armed forces should be invited to the APC to prepare a comprehensive strategy. “Pakistan should establish relations with neighbouring countries because peace in the region will strengthen the peace in the country,” he pointed out. The leader of the opposition emphasised that Shahbaz Sharif is a responsible person and he should not give statements against MQM because the party is a political reality which enjoys public mandate in the National Assembly.
To a question, Mr Shah declared that the PPP is not with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif rather it is with the democracy, adding that if the government attempts to marginalise the MQM from political dispensation, it would spark a new war.
He pointed out that Nawaz Sharif is not the prime minister of a single province and he should visit the flood affected area of Sindh as well. The PPP leader recalled that the PML-N opposed the PPP government when it had imposed new taxes on wealthy people and now his party would oppose the levy of withholding tax imposed on the common man. He urged the government to withdraw the withholding tax immediately and instead impose taxes on wealthy class.
To a question about former president, Mr Shah elaborated that Zardari had not gone abroad for the first time and the media was creating an unnecessary hype in this regard.
He also stressed the need that the next general elections should be held under biometric system.PPP divisional coordinator former MNA Javed Iqbal Warriach, district president Javed Akbar Dhiloon, district general sectary Muhammad Warind and district information sectary Mehmoodul Hassan were also present at the occasion.