Kala Bagh Dam project: Govt directed to reply to objections

RECORDER REPORT

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court Chief Justice here on Tuesday directed Federal Government to reply the objections raised by different political parties on the Kala Bagh Dam (KBD) project.

The Chief Justice Umar Atta Bandiyal adjourned to July 27 the proceedings in a petition seeking directions for the government to build consensus on the construction of KBD.

Earlier a deputy attorney general told the court that the KBD project was started in the regime of former Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. However, he said, reservations by Sindh and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa provinces delayed the completion of the project. The law officer also sought time to file a detailed reply on behalf of the Federal Government.

The petitioner a bar member Syed Feroze Shah Gillani submitted that former caretaker chief minister of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and WAPDA ex-chairman Shamsul Mulk said on Oct 9, 2010, that KBD was not an issue of Punjab alone but a matter of the country’s survival.

The petitioner said if KBD is built water would be available for vast tracts of land in the KP at affordable price because the water level would be high enough to irrigate the farms.