Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar Wednesday remarked that people opposing the construction of dams are working on someone else’s agenda.

“We will not allow such elements to prevail their agenda of non-construction of dams as it is the matter of future of our next generations,” the top judge remarked while hearing a case pertaining to the construction of Dadhocha dam in Rawalpindi.

The chief justice remarked that a politician has said that Supreme Court should form its own political party. “Nobody has right to utter such things, such people cannot shake our commitment towards construction of dams in country,” he said, adding that dams would be constructed at any cost. “We are issuing a final warning to anti-dam elements as these matters relate not with politics but with the basic rights of the people,” he remarked.

In 2006, the Defence Housing Authority (DHA) had purchased 18,000 kanals of land at the site where the Dadhocha dam was to be built and launched a housing scheme as a joint venture with the Bahria Town. On Aug 4, 2015, the SC in a suo motu case directed the Punjab government to construct the dam at the originally proposed site. Soon after the directives, the government banned the sale and purchase of land in the area and allocated funds for the construction of the dam in its annual development plan for 2017-18. On the SC’s directives, the Punjab government in 2017 initiated the process of constructing the dam at a cost of Rs 7 billion to overcome the water shortage in Rawalpindi.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had previously initiated investigations against DHA Islamabad, Bahria Town and the Capital Development Authority administration over Rs 62 billion DHA Valley project and its Phase-II (extension) scams.

During Wednesday’s hearing, the court asked the Punjab government to examine the DHA-Bahria Town joint venture, and asked the JV to present its recommendations on the matter to the provincial government.

The SC also asked the Punjab government to examine the Irrigation Department’s recommendations and present its own recommendations if not satisfied with those. The Punjab government was asked to inform the court of when the dam would be completed by and how much expense would be incurred during its construction.

The Punjab Irrigation Department secretary told the court that the provincial government had allocated funds for the acquisition of land for the dam. The chief justice asked what obstacles the Punjab government was facing in the construction of the dam, and added, “I know that commission mafia’s commission will be cut and this is the obstacle. I won’t let anyone take any cuts, nor will I let them appropriate commission.”

The top judge said that the commission mafia should fear God, and that the dam project was under strain because of this commission mafia. He asked them, without naming anyone, to think about themselves, the country and the future of its citizens. The CJP suggested the secretary to call the Punjab chief minister and his cabinet regarding the matter, to which the secretary responded that there was no need for it since he was looking after it.

The chief justice told the secretary that he should be giving money instead of taking money, to which the secretary responded that he had already contributed money to the dam fund.

The hearing was postponed till next week.

Published in Daily Times, September 13^th 2018.