'Indians should let UN experts inspect IHK

LAHORE If the Indians are not stopping Pakistani waters in Kashmir, it should let the United Nations or World Bank experts inspect the entire valley. These views were expressed by Convener Water Resources Development Council Engineer Suleman N Khan while addressing a sitting at Aiwan-e-Karkunan Tehrike-e-Pakistan. Northern River Linkage USD 212bn project is predicated on theft of IHK/PAK waters. In July 2010 the Indian side was willing to create a joint commission for study of the watershed. The Indian side had agreed during the 29/30 July Conference in New Delhi to have a joint study of the watershed. However, people like Rafay Alam have sabotaged it, Suleman claimed. He said the primary energy consumption which includes hydro nuclear, coal, oil and gas is now 65.8m tons. He said we should reject all previous plans and reduce imported oil in real terms by 5 per cent annually from its peak of 21m tons of which 11m tons is furnace oil for IPPs and some for public sector generation. He suggested for freezing the imported POL so that oil consumption remains static at 425,000 barrels/day (58,219 tons/day). He said the hydel, thermal ratio was about 30:70 (lopsided), which was an absolutely unacceptable situation. Suleman urged the engineering community to play their role in building public awareness on the Greater Kashmir which had blocked our mega projects.