Raja Pervez Ashraf has said Bhasha dam is the future of Pakistan. I am sorry to disappoint him but by the time Bhasha dam is commissioned in 12 years, it would only serve to generate the amount of power that by then de-commissioned Mangla and Tarbela dams would have stopped generating. As for water, it would store roughly the same amount that Mangla and Tarbela dams are currently doing and stopped doing by then. Bhasha dam will be a replacement dam and may not light even one additional bulb or irrigate one additional acre. The future of Pakistan is Kalabagh dam. It is the only dam that can replace the generation and storage lost at Mangla and Tarbela dams by the time it is built in six years, thereby making Bhasha dam much more productive when it is made after all. -KHURSHID ANWER, Lahore, January 19.