ISLAMABAD: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak has accused the ruling PML-N of using the Kalabagh Dam issue only as a political slogan.

Addressing a news conference here on Saturday, the chief minister said he had serious reservations over the Kalabagh Dam project but would have no objection to its construction if all the provinces agreed on it.

He called for the setting up of a commission on the Kalabagh Dam project, though he did not specify the nature of such a body.

Mr Khattak expressed surprise over the allegations hurled by PML-N leaders that the PTI-led government in KP had wasted billions of rupees of the Hydel Development Funds (HDF) by investing them in the stock market.

He said that the previous MMA government had invested Rs500 million from the Pension Fund, and not the HDF, in the stock market in 2005, adding that his government had recovered half of that amount and the rest would be withdrawn soon.

Mr Khattak said his government had already served a legal notice on PML-N MNAs Daniyal Aziz, Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry and Maiza Hameed for levelling “false allegations” against him. He also rejected the allegations that his government was not working on electricity projects and provided details of the projects currently under way in KP.

The CM alleged that the federal government was not ready to honour the MoU reached between him and some federal ministers earlier this year under which the Centre was to pay Rs18bn to KP from over Rs100bn net hydropower profit arrears.

He claimed that the Centre was selling electricity at a rate of Rs12 per unit after buying it at Rs4 from the province.

Published in Dawn, October 11th, 2015

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