Editorial in 'The News' of today:
LHC bombshell
Saturday, December 01, 2012
An explosive decision by the Lahore High Court has immediately sent shock-waves reverberating through the country. Hearing a petition from a former World Bank official seeking the building of the highly controversial Kalabagh Dam, Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court Umar Ata Bandial has ordered the federal government to immediately begin work on constructing the reservoir. The decision is based on the fact that in 1991 the Council of Common Interests (CCI) had approved the dam. The unexpected short order from the court also stated that, constitutionally speaking, the construction of the dam should have gone ahead after this CCI agreement. The judge also spoke of problems caused by the extreme energy shortage in the country, something the dam could help resolve. The right of citizens to a supply of power was mentioned as well during the hearings.
Reaction from across the country has poured in immediately. The ruling PPP, which had already stated that work on the dam would not go ahead, the ANP in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the Qaumi Watan Party and other groups have spoken out forcefully against any plans to build the dam. Sindhi nationalist parties have been even more vociferous – expressing anger over the move. In Sindh, opposition to the dam is based on the view that it will cause a further reduction in water flow down the Indus, while in KP the argument goes that several districts will be flooded were the dam to be constructed. These are very real concerns and, while the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf’s call for building a consensus may not be illogical, the fact is that various attempts to do so in the past have failed. There are varying views on the problems the dam will solve or, alternatively, give rise to. We must ask ourselves if we can really afford this at this moment when we already beset with a dizzying range of issues to deal with. As analysts are already stating, it is simply not feasible – or in political terms sensible – to move ahead with the Kalabagh project. The three smaller provinces oppose it; and right now we need to draw our nation closer together, not tear it further apart. The issue of the Kalabagh Dam had died down to a large extent. It is a pity it has cropped up again, creating new frictions at a time when we can really ill-afford them.
LHC bombshell - thenews.com.pk
And the one in 'Dawn'
Kalabagh issue
From the Newspaper
KALABAGH dam enjoys support in the capital of Punjab which is the only unit in the federation backing its construction. For some, the proposal has been a dream for many decades now. For just as long, the ‘smaller provinces’ have opposed the construction of the dam, their opposition intensifying even at the mere hint of attempts to force the project through. But on Thursday, there was more of a thrust — from the blue. The Lahore High Court’s order has been met with the standard objections outside Punjab. In fact, so sensitive is the subject that even those who support Kalabagh’s construction have been guarded in their response to the LHC decision that the federal government is constitutionally bound to start the project in the light of the decisions of the Council of Common Interests. The decisions referred to in the LHC short order were made in the 1990s and called for technical and political issues associated with the dam to be addressed to make the latter acceptable to all.
The court says the project’s fate should not be sealed on the basis of presumptions and surmises, perhaps seeking to put the focus back on the CCI’s calls for evaluation of contentious aspects of Kalabagh. Maybe there is a hope that this would help iron out the differences between the provinces manifested in the anti-Kalabagh resolutions passed by the assemblies of Balochistan, Sindh and the erstwhile NWFP some years ago.
In any event, the matter will ultimately come to the people’s representatives which is only fair. Regardless of whether or not they agree with the court, the politicians have, without exception, spoken of the lack of consensus on Kalabagh in response to Thursday’s ruling. The question is: if it is to be ultimately referred to the politicians why did the LHC have to intervene in the first place? The temptation is there to find an answer in the judiciary’s relationship with a government whose decision to shelve the Kalabagh project “forever” was among its first resolutions. In more recent times the superior judiciary has ruled that a provincial government (in Balochistan) has lost its mandate to govern. It has also sought to fix CNG prices. This approach to addressing problems can be termed risky since it can increase the gap between two pillars of the state which cannot do without each other and must complement one another. The Kalabagh ruling by the LHC has already been dubbed ‘anti-federation’. It could cause — perhaps it already has caused — greater polarisation in a country confronting major provincial and ethnic divisions.
http://www.defence.pk/forums/economy-development/221779-lhc-orders-construction-kalabagh-dam-5.html
those taxes on every thing are called Bhatta or Jagga Tax in punjabi 
Kon bachai ga pakistan ? imran khan imran khan 
