ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday congratulated the nation for “generously” contributing to the dams fund as the amount collected so far has hit the Rs10 billion mark.

In a message on Twitter, he said: “I would like to pay tribute to the generosity of the people of Pakistan for raising Rs10 billion for the Dams’ Fund.”

The estimated amount required for construction of two dams is Rs1,700bn, of which Rs1,450bn will be spent on the construction of the Diamer-Bhasha dam and Rs300bn on the Mohmand dam.

The initiative for collection of funds for construction of new dams in the country was taken by former chief justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar in July, 2018. However, it was later joined by PM Khan and the joint move was given an official name ‘The Supreme Court of Pakistan and the Prime Minister of Pakistan Diamer-Bhasha and Mohmand Dams Fund’.

PM congratulates nation for generously giving donations for construction of new water reservoirs

While the government sees the amount collected for construction of new dams so far as a success, opposition parties in the country claim that the government has failed to attract people, especially overseas Pakistanis. They see the amount collected so far as ‘peanuts’, saying that the estimated amount required for the construction of two dams is much higher. They also claim that the government has spent over Rs12bn on advertisement campaigns of the dams fund.

PM Khan has appealed to the nation many times to contribute to the dams fund. He has asked the estimated nine million overseas Pakistanis, particularly those living in European countries and the United States, to contribute at least $1,000 per head to the noble cause. He is of the view that if the two dams are not constructed, the country can face a famine-like situation by 2025.

Mr Khan on many occasions has appreciated efforts of former CJP Nisar for collecting funds for dams’ construction.

On Feb 22, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) called for recovery of Rs13 billion spent on what it said “advertisement campaign” of the Diamer-Bhasha dam fund from former CJP Nisar.

In a joint press conference with former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and former defence minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif, PML-N organising committee chairman Ahsan Iqbal said that the former chief justice had tried to fool the nation in the name of the dams’ fund.

He said at that time Rs9 billion had been collected for the dams’ fund while Rs13 billion spent on advertisement campaigns for it, adding that the amount spent on the advertisement campaigns must be recovered from the former chief justice.

However, the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) chairman had told the apex court during a hearing of a case that although the cost of advertisements run by the media was over Rs20 billion, the media houses run them free of cost to contribute their share in the fund.

Mr Iqbal had said that it had been claimed at the time of the launching of the dams’ fund drive that overseas Pakistanis would send $200 billion, but the share of expatriates in the amount collected for the dams’ construction was just Rs1.25 billion. “The rest of the amount had been forcibly deducted from salaries of government employees, including Rs2 billion from salaries of the armed forces,” he added.

The opposition party claimed that the Diamer-Bhasha dam was a Rs1,100bn project and the PML-N government had already spent Rs122bn on acquisition of land and allocated another Rs24bn for the project, without collecting any donation.

Published in Dawn, March 13th, 2019