The recent statements of PML-Q regarding Kalabagh dam are nothing short of political somersaults with one leader speaking for the need of Kalabagh dam for the nation while speaking in Punjab, while another leader speaking against Kalabagh dam while in Sindh. This is the height of hypocrisy in not calling a spade a spade. This is the sad plight of political parties in Pakistan that while the late Pir Pagara was in support of Kalabagh dam his son i.e. the new Pir Pagara opposes it due ostensibly to his own political concerns.
Even the military dictators played politics on the issue of the dam. Former President General (R) Pervez Musharraf campaigned for Kalabagh dam in Sindh saying that Sindh would commit suicide if it opposed Kalabagh dam due to lack of sweet ground water as it depended on sweet river water for its needs that could not be met without storing river water in a mega dam upstream. Later playing politics on behest of MQM he lost interest in supporting Kalabagh dam. Hence former Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani declared that Kalabagh dam became a victim of politics. If this is the role of politics in Pakistan then we might bid farewell to the prosperity and glorious future of Pakistan as darkness and abject poverty would be our destiny.
DR MUHAMMAD YAQOOB BHATTI,
Lahore, December 24.