THIS is apropos of Dr Yaqub Bhatti’s letter ‘Kalabagh Dam: a solution’ (Jan 14). Despite no fresh resolution by Balochistan the resolutions against the Kalabagh Dam by the three provinces of Sindh, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan still hold good under the constitution.

An out-of-the box solution purports that we come up with a solution that is acceptable to all stakeholders in the federation as, contrary to what is being proposed by Dr Bhatti, which is equivalent to manipulating a situation in Punjab’s favour, i.e., creating four provinces out of Punjab, on the basis of being the largest-population province.

Dr Bhatti’s elaborate out-of-the-box solution to the problem lies in first creating Pothwar, Northern Punjab, Seraiki Suba and, last but not least, a Bahawalpur Suba to outnumber Sindh, KP and Balochistan standing in the way of the Kalabagh Dam. This creation of a myriad of provinces then shall bust the myth of majority provinces standing in the way of the Kalabagh Dam.

What is not being comprehended here by Dr Bhatti is the fact that the project is detrimental to the very existence of the federation which is far more important than watering Punjab at the cost of Sindh and KP.

Dr Bhatti, on the one hand, has proposed to pitch the ‘new to-be-created provinces’ against the existing three majority provinces to find a democratic solution, to which I as a student of logic ask what is wrong with the present situation of three against one? Is this not democratic?

MOHSIN ALI MEMON
Jamshoro