LAHORE, May 30: The Council of Common Interests (CCI) informed the Lahore High Court on Wednesday that it had no objection on the construction of Kalabagh Dam (KBD) and it had already sent its recommendations on the issue to the federal government.

A written reply submitted on behalf of the council said that work on the project would be started after the government issued directions to this effect.

The reply was submitted in response to a petition seeking directions for the government to convene a meeting of the CCI to build consensus and exercise supervision and control of the KBD project.

After going through the record, Justice Umar Ata Bandial sought replies from the federal and all provincial governments by June 11.

Advocate Syed Feroze Shah Gillani had filed the petition and stated that former caretaker chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Wapda’s former chairman Shamsul Mulk had said that KBD was not an issue of Punjab alone but a matter of the country’s survival.

The petitioner said the KP had suffered the most due to delay in construction of the dam as even after completion of Bhasha Dam the province would continue to be deprived of additional water.—Staff Reporter