PESHAWAR: A constitutional petition was moved in the Peshawar High Court (PHC) for the construction of Kalabagh dam. The constitutional petition was filed by All Pakistan Muslim League (APML) Charsadda leader Nadir Khan through his lawyer Shah Faisal Ilyas. The federal government, minister for water and power through secretary, interior minister through secretary, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, governments of Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan through chief secretaries and chairman Wapda were made respondents in the writ petition. In the five-page writ petition, the petitioner stated that construction of Kalabagh dam was of significance to public and initially the project was approved by the World Bank in 1984 and an aid of 8 billion dollars cost was estimated for the project. The petitioner stated that Pakistan was currently facing serious shortage of electricity and through this dam Pakistan would be able to produce 36000 megawatts electricity.The petition said the cost of the dam is 8 billion dollars would be recovered only in five years. Through such low cost electricity, Pakistan would also able to earn 1.6 billion dollars annually, it added. It said Pakistan had already invested Rs1 billion in the project, which would be completed in five years.It said that as per the experts’ survey, the income of Pakistan would increase up to 15 percent and it would also turn about 800,000 acres land cultivable in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
