NRO to be treachery against nation: PM

GHALLANI: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday reiterated that he won’t give NRO to anyone as it will be treason with the nation and disloyalty with Almighty Allah.

Performing the ground-breaking of Mohmand Dam along with the army chief and former CJP, Prime Minister Imran Khan blasted the elected governments of the past for not building dams, which created water crisis in the country.

The Mohmand Hydropower Dam project would generate 800 megawatts electricity besides providing water to 1.2 million acres feet (MAF), which would directly benefit the people of Charsadda, Mohmand and adjoining areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

KP Governor Shah Farman, Chief Minister Mehmood Khan, Defence Minister Pervaiz Khattak, Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa, former Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar, Minister forWater Resources Faisal Vawda, Minister for Religious Affairs Pir Noorul Haq Qadri, Senator Faisal Javed and Member National Assembly Sajid Khan and others attended the ceremony.

"The rulers in the past launched election-specific development schemes and ignored the long-term development projects like dams," the premier said. He said all the provinces should think collectively to end the sense of deprivation of the tribal districts. The sense of deprivation and disappointment pave the way for chaos, he pointed out.

The prime minister said the elements funded by the anti-Pakistan foreign forces were instigating the tribal people. He added that peace had been restored to the tribal districts because of the sacrifices offered by the Pakistan Army and the local people.

The prime minister said the country was facing internal threat as the "hypocrites are worse than non-believers". "The opposition parties which had looted the country are crying of threat to democracy only to hide their corruption and escape punishment," he added. "But they will not get any NRO. They will have to return the looted money," the prime minister vowed, and said that the thieves now want to go abroad on pretext of medical treatment.

He said the dam construction was the duty of the government, not the judiciary. "But because of the weakness of democracy and past rulers, this task was accomplished by former chief justice Mian Saqib Nisar who did it to meet the water shortage," he added.

Imran Khan said he visited the tribal areas in 1993 and wrote a book on the subject. He said even the British could not conquer Tirah valley of Khyber district. "But peace has returned to the area after a prolonged militancy which was eliminated due to the sacrifices of the Pakistan Army, elders and local population," he said.

The prime minister said investors never come to the area that lacks peace. He said now investors have started investment after the restoration of peace. "We will have to work in unison to bring the tribal areas, Balochistan and other less developed areas on a par with the developed ones. This is needed because the sense of deprivation is increasing in the tribal people because of unemployment, poverty. Lest the foreign elements once again create chaos here by taking advantage of unemployment and deprivations," he added.

The prime minister said all the provinces should give 3 per cent share of the NFC to the tribal district. He asked the Wapda chief to complete Mohmand Dam construction as soon as possible.

The prime minster said China has 80,000 small dams. While there were 5000 dams of the size of Tarbela and Mangla. He said Chinese think of the development and prosperity of their country.

The prime minister said Rs4.5 billon had been allocated for the development of the Mohmand district. Wapda Chairman Lt Gen (R) Muzamil Hussain and project director of the dam briefed the prime minister about the salient features of the project.

On completion, the dam will generate an estimated annual energy of about 2,862GWh besides an active water storage reservoir of about 1.2MAF in addition to bringing about 17,000 acres barren land under cultivation directly.

Mohmand dam is being constructed on Swat River about 48 kilometres from Peshawar at confluence of Mohmand and Charsadda district and the dam's reservoir area extends upstream to Mohmand, Bajaur and other northern districts in KP.

Moreover, the project will supply 13.32 million cubic meter water from Mohmand Dam reservoir to Peshawar city for drinking. The dam will address the long-awaited problem of water scarcity in Mohmand district and will save Peshawar, Charsadda, Nowshera and other districts from floods in future.

The project is scheduled to be completed in five years with an estimated cost of Rs183billion. On completion, the dam will store around 1.2 million acre feet (MAF) of water and generate 800 megawatts hydel electricity.

Saqib Nisar in his address thanked the people and expatriates for extending donations for the funds. He urged the need for transparency in the completion of the dam. Faisal Vawda in his brief speech also said that transparency will be an important aspect of the project.

Earlier, the prime minister attended the concluding ceremony of the eight-day Aman Festival in Maidan area in Tirah valley. Chief Minister Mehmood Khan, Pervaiz Khattak, Noorul Haq Qadri, MNA Iqbal Afridi, Inspector General Frontier Corps (IGFC) Major General Rahat Naseem, Brigadier Shehryar Qureshi, Dupery Commissioner Khyber Mahmood Aslam Wazir, Sports Director Muhammad Nawaz and others were also present on the occasion. The sports festival was organised in collaboration with the Directorate Sports of tribal districts.

Several games including cricket, football, volleyball, tag-of-war, race and long jump were the parts of game. A large number of people warmly welcomed the prime minister saying, "Imran Khan Qadam Bharhao Hum Tumharay Sath Hain." A contingent of the Frontier Corps (FC) presented salute to the prime minister who later distributed trophies among winning teams and players.

Speaking on the occasion, Federal Minister for Water Resources Faisal Vawda said people have full confidence in the Prime Minister Imran Khan-led government, adding “if need be they would even bear the burden of paying Rs200 for a litre of petrol”. The minister said that the PTI got people’s mandate so that PM Imran could bring the looted wealth back to country.