The Kalabagh Dam project has been controversial from the start with three provinces opposing it on one pretext or the other. For long the stakeholders have been talking of consensus. However, it was in the year 1991 that at a meeting of the Council of Common Interests, the four chief ministers of federating units arrived at a consensus and signed a document titled Water Accord. They discussed the misgivings and agreed to remove them. But soon after, the issue was politicised and all provinces but one backed out from their stated positions. Minister for Water and Power Raja Pervaiz Ashraf (now Prime Minister) has declared the Kalabagh project as neither workable nor viable. This highlighted the issue more particularly in the wake of 2010-11 floods devastating large tracts of Punjab and Sindh’s rural areas.
And now, PML-Q leader Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain has tried to nullify the KBD when he said at a public meeting in Sindh that his party had buried the project once and for all. It is unfortunate that in a bid to secure some votes, Chaudhry Shujaat should be feeling no shame in making a statement that is tantamount to harming the national interest. If we have to overcome the prevailing energy water crises, building new dams and above all KBD is essential.