ISLAMABAD, Dec 26: Sindh’s ruling party leadership on Monday advised President Gen Pervez Musharraf to rearrange priorities on the government’s dam construction plan by taking up Bhasha dam first and “a canal-less” Kalabagh dam later.

This advice was given at a meeting presided over by the president on water management.

President Gen Pervez Musharraf told participants that a schedule to construct three dams - Kalabagh, Bhasha and Akhori - by 2020 would be announced very shortly, for which priority had to be set now, to complete at least one dam by 2016, a participant of the meeting told Dawn.

On Monday, President Musharraf chaired two separate meetings on Water Management Vision in his Rawalpindi camp office. Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, PML President Ch. Shujaat Hussain, Mushahid Hussain Syed, ministers for information, water and power, narcotics control, interior, local government, chief ministers of Sindh and Punjab, attorney general of Pakistan, special assistant to prime minister on youth affairs and Sindh minister for irrigation also attended.

In another meeting, Sindh Chief Minister Dr Arbab Rahim, Water and Power Minister Liaquat Jatoi, Narcotics Control Minister Ghaus Bakhsh Mehr, Local Government Minister Abdul Razak Taheem and Sindh Irrigation Minister Nadir Kamal Leghari participated.

Sources said the president told participants that he was ready to provide “any constitutional and legal guarantee” and subsequently inquired about the kind of guarantee they required.

The Sindhi leadership recommended that no future dam or major irrigation project, including Bhasha or Kalabagh, should be taken in hand which contained any canal outlet. For this, they demanded a constitutional amendment through a two-thirds majority in the centre and a consensus legislation in Sindh Assembly that whenever Kalabagh dam is constructed, it would be without canals and such a design would be protected for all times to come.

A participant said Sindh representatives reiterated their demand to give up Kalabagh dam’s priority and take up Bhasha dam’s construction first and then move on to Kalabagh dam but without any canals and with a constitutional guarantee that its design would never be changed.

Informed sources said that PML secretary general Mushahid Hussain and the PM’s advisor on youth affairs, Mohammad Ali Durrani, also said that if consensus could not be achieved on Kalabagh dam, then priority should be given to Bhasha dam. Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao also supported construction of Bhasha dam on first priority.

Punjab Chief Minister Pervez Elahi, however, demanded that Kalabagh dam be constructed along with its necessary canals without delay.

The president assured participants that he would remove their reservations on construction of dams and National Finance Commission and he would visit NWFP and Balochistan in addition to revisiting Sindh again.

The crux of the position taken by Sindh ministers, according to a participant, is that they are not opposed to the construction of water reservoirs but construction of Bhasha dam before Kalabagh would ensure sufficient water supplies to Sindh and subsequently development of Kalabagh dam would become easier.

He said the Sindh chief minister and federal ministers from Sindh also opposed moves to refer the issue of construction of water reservoirs to the Supreme Court.

An official statement said the president shared his impressions on his recently concluded visits to Sukkur, Hyderabad and Karachi and said it helped to create awareness on the need for additional water reservoirs and clear perceptions.

The prime minister told the meeting that a report of the technical committee on water and recommendations of an international panel of experts on water escapages downstream Kotri would be released to the general public in the near future while the parliamentary committee’s report would be placed before the Senate.

He said a team of technical experts would brief provincial cabinets, coalition partners as well as opposition parties on the government’s water management strategy.