LAHORE, Dec 29: President Gen Pervez Musharraf reiterated on Thursday that the country would have to construct three big dams by the year of 2016.

“We have no choice but to build dams,” he said without mentioning any project. “We are an agrarian society and our GDP depends upon agriculture. If the target of agricultural production is not achieved, it will directly affect the economy,” he added.

The president was speaking at the 17th annual convocation of the Lahore University of Management Sciences here.

On the Balochistan situation, he said: “We see irritants there, which is a result of inconsistent policies of the past regimes. They (irritants) kill foreign workers and disrupt gas and electricity supply which will not be tolerated. Any element impeding development work there will be dealt with.”

The president said that terrorism and extremism were major issues and the entire country would have to fight them.

He said that Pakistan was among the top 10 investor-friendly countries and it required aggressive marketing strategy to lure more foreign investment.

He said that the country’s GDP and debt ratio was good and even better than that of the standard set by the European Union.

“Economy is the base of every thing and nothing will be fine if we do not revive it,” he added.

Gen Musharraf said that the National Security Council had been established to have a check on president, prime minister and army chief. “I give assurance that the NSC will eliminate the threat of marshal law.”

Gen Musharraf said that sustainable democracy, based on devolution of powers, had been introduced in the country.

“Devolution, the basis of democracy, did not exist in the country. The main issue of democracy is freedom of expression and empowering people, especially women, minorities, peasants and workers,” he said. He added that a democracy also had checks and balances on the system.

President Musharraf said media was freer in his regime. “I, a man in uniform, have allowed a number of electronic channels (to operate), which none of the previous governments had done.”

APP ADDS: Separately, addressing a delegation of the Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors, he said that the government would take a judicious decision on construction of water reservoirs and added that overlooking the vital issue would amount to a betrayal to the nation in view of growing shortfall of water.

He said that the government was striving for developing a consensus on the subject, favoured an open discussion on the issue and was prepared to extend constitutional and administrative guarantees to Sindh.

Referring to his interaction with a cross section of people in Sindh, the president said that it had been beneficial in terms of creating awareness about the imperative need for water reservoirs.