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Power crisis created to justify Kalabagh: JUI-F
Senator Soomro (left) said that Thar coal project could cater to energy needs of the entire country for a 100 years but Punjab does not want this project to be executed because Sindh is likely to get its royalty. - APP photo
HYDERABAD: Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (F) Senator Dr. Khalid Mehmood Soomro has said that the current energy crisis has been deliberately created by certain forces to provide a justification for building Kalabagh dam which directly affects water interests of Sindh.
At a press conference at the press club here on Sunday, he alleged that Punjab doesn’t want that resources of Thar coal be exploited and if a power plant is established here, Sindh would demand a big chunk of royalty.
He said that outgoing regime did not establish power plants in the country while some of the power houses were lying closed and the government owed money to independent power producers (IPPs). He said that had this situation been rectified the problem would have been resolved.
He said that required inflows are not released downstream Kotri and, if water authorities release water downstream Kotri barrage as per their own decision announced earlier, half of land in Thatta and Badin districts would have been saved from sea intrusion.
He deplored that President Asif Ali Zardari’s meeting on water issue ended up in hue and cry. He said that Punjab’s 90 per cent of underground water resources were sweet contrary to Sindh where sub-soil water was brackish and Punjab’s growers could cultivate their land through tube wells but Indus remains the only source for growers in Sindh to irrigate their land, therefore, any dam on it would jeopardise the province’s water related interests.
Senator Soomro said that Thar coal project could cater to energy needs of entire country for 100 years but Punjab does not want this project to be executed because Sindh is likely to get its royalty.
He suggested that KESC should be nationalised to end power crisis in Karachi as the outgoing government had wrongly privatised it.
He said that neither NWFP nor Balochistan were subjected to excesses the way injustice is done to Sindh. He said that Sindh contributed 63 per cent in terms of overall revenue to the national exchequer. ‘Sindh pays 64 per cent of the country’s total income tax, 80 per cent of central excise duty and contributes 90 per cent of export and 62 per cent in oil production’, he said.
He said that of total gas production, Sindh’s share is 48 per cent and 39 per cent in power generation whereas the other three provinces had a total contribution of 30 per cent.He said that federation had returned only 10 to 12 per cent in lieu of these resources and demanded royalty of oil and gas production.
He stated that Sindh has marginal representation in civil and military bureaucracy and overseas services and strongly opposed agricultural land distribution to armed forces personnel as so far one million acres of land has been distributed that was not seen in other provinces.
He urged President Zardari to fulfil his commitment of allowing provinces to collect sales tax and announce NFC award.
DAWN: Monday, 29 Jun, 2009
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