PPP Sanghar Leaders Dismiss Kalabagh Dam Support as ‘Unacceptable’

Sanghar (Hasnain Ashiq Saand) District leaders of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) have strongly opposed statements made by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur and Punjab Minister Uzma Bukhari in support of the construction of the controversial Kalabagh Dam.

In a joint statement, PPP Sanghar president MPA Ali Hassan Hingorjo, general secretary Jahangir Junejo and information secretary Imran Dhamrah said the Kalabagh Dam had long been rejected by the assemblies and people of three provinces and could not be accepted “in any shape or form.”

The PPP leaders maintained that the recent flooding in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was the result of torrential rains, cloudbursts and India’s release of water without prior intimation, adding that the disaster had “nothing to do with the presence or absence of Kalabagh Dam.”

They criticised what they described as “so-called intellectuals and political figures” for attempting to “breathe life into a dead horse” by reviving a divisive issue. “At a time when the country requires unity and administrative measures to deal with the crisis, raising the Kalabagh Dam controversy is nothing more than an attempt to shift focus from failures in managing the flood situation and to spread unrest among the people of three provinces,” the statement read.