LAHORE, Sept 29: The Tehrik-i-Istaqlal has alleged that managers of thermal powerhouses are sponsoring the anti-Kalabagh Dam campaign.

Speaking at a press conference here on Monday, Tehrik president Rehmat Khan Vardag alleged that thermal powerhouses were offering money to regional parties for organizing anti-dam protests, as the cheap electricity to be produced through hydel means would affect their market.

Ahmad Dara, Nisar Ahmad Khan and Falak Naz Khattak, provincial presidents of Sindh, Balochistan and NWFP chapters of the party, were also present on the occasion.

Mr Vardag said that feudal lords had joined hands with these elements to annihilate holders of 10 to 12 acres and force them to become their tenants.

He claimed that a high official of the Sindh agriculture department had told him recently that most of the feudal lords who were opposing new water projects were involved in water theft. “As they are getting plenty of water, they do not want to see its supply to their subjects (haris).”

To counter their propaganda, he said, the central working committee of Tehrik had decided to launch a mass contact campaign.

A series of seminars would be organized in this regard. The first meeting would be held in Karachi on Oct 19, followed by meetings in Lahore on Oct 26 and Dera Ismail Khan, Quetta, and Islamabad on Dec 14, 21 and 28, respectively.

He asserted that people of the NWFP would themselves tackle the elements who had threatened to blow up the dam as the reservoir would guarantee irrigation of hundreds of thousands of acres of barren land in southern districts of Tank, Lukki Marwat, Bannu and Dera Ismail Khan.

“When Hazara and Bannu divisions, where a majority of the NWFP population is concentrated, have no objection to the Kalabagh dam, the people of just two districts —- Mardan and Charsadda —- also have no right to raise one.”

He believed that after making the vast barren tract of Bannu cultivable, the province would be able to export wheat instead of importing the commodity from Punjab.

The step would also ensure cheap power supply to at least 70 million people as well as reduce the oil import bill, Mr Vardag said.

Of the total oil imports worth Rs265 billion, a sum of Rs100 billion was incurred on importing furnace oil for thermal powerhouses, he said. He claimed that Pir Pagara would support the dam as always, and advised the authorities concerned to consult him in this regard.