Brave Pakistan army

The Kalabagh Dam   is a proposed hydroelectric dam on the Indus River at Kalabagh in the Mianwali District of Punjab Province in Pakistan. Intensely debated and deemed a necessity since its inception, if constructed the dam would have 3,600 megawatts (4,800,000 hp) of electricity generation capacity.[1]

History[edit]

In December 2004, then President of Pakistan General Pervez Musharraf, announced that he would build the dam to serve the larger interest of Pakistan. However, on 26 May 2008, the Federal Minister for Water and Power of Pakistan, Raja Pervez Ashraf, said that the "Kalabagh Dam would not be constructed" and that the project had been cancelled due to "opposition from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindhand other stakeholders, the project was no longer feasible".[2] In 2010 after the worst floods in Pakistani history, the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Yousaf Raza Gilani, stated flood damage would be minimised if the Kalabagh Dam were built.[3]

Technical facts and differing opinions[edit]

Bashir A. Malik, former chief technical advisor to the United Nations and World Bank, said, "Sindh and Pakhtunkhwah would become drought areas in the years to come if Kalabagh Dam was not built."[4] At the same time, former KPK Chief Minister Shamsul Mulk has stated that the "Kalabagh Dam would be helpful in erasing poverty from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, as it would irrigate 800,000 acres of cultivable land that is located 100–150 feet above the level of River Indus."[5] The Kalabagh Dam would provide 6.5 million acre feet of water to cultivate seven million acres of currently barren land in addition to the 3,600 megawatts (4,800,000 hp) of electricity it would provide.[6] In response to the push towards side-lining Kalabagh altogether in favour of the rival Basha Dam project, Engineer Anwer Khurshid stated that "Basha Dam is no substitute for Kalabagh Dam, not because of its altitude, which is high enough, but because no irrigation canals can be taken out from it because of the hilly terrain."[7]

Experts who supported the construction of the Kalabagh Dam at the 2012 "Save Water Save Pakistan" Forum included: Dr Salman Shah, former Finance Minister of Pakistan; Abdul Majeed Khan, TECH Society president; Shafqat Masood, former IRSA chairman; Qayyum Nizami, former Minister of State; Prof Abdul Qayyum Qureshi, former Vice-Chancellor of Islamia University, Bahawalpur; Dr Muhammad Sadiq, agricultural scientist; M Saeed Khan, former GM of Kalabagh Dam Project; Mansoor Ahmed, former MD of Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission Foundation, and Jameel Gishkori, among others.[8] The participants of Save Water Save Pakistan At its conclusion, the forum demanded the construction of five dams, including the Munda Dam, Kurram Tangi Dam, Akhori Dam and the Kalabagh Dam, at by 2025 at the latest to store water and generate electricity to meet demand.

Conversly, Former Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) Chief Engineer, Engr. Shahr-i-Yar Khan has claimed that construction of the Kalabagh Dam is not suitable for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and will involve significant fiscal waste when compared to the many other suitable sites for proposed dams on the Indus River. Shahr-i-Yar Khan, who has trained abroad and served in various positions at the WAPDA, highlighted various issues related to construction of the dam, stating that it would have a number of adverse effects on the generation capabilities of the Barotha power complex.

The province of Sindh lies nearest to the sea on the Indus River ("lower riparian") and has been the strongest opponent of the Kalabagh Dam. Its politicians have presented many objections: Sindh's share of Indus water will be curtailed as water run off from the Kalabagh Dam will go to irrigate farmlands in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to Sindh's detriment. Sindhis hold that their rights as the lower riparian have precedence according to international water distribution laws.

The coastal regions of Sindh require a constant flow of water from the Indus to the Arabian Sea to keep seawater from intruding inland. If the flow of water is stopped, the incoming sea water would turn many areas of Sindh's coast into an arid saline desert, and destroy its coastal mangroves. With the construction of dams such as the Tarbela Dam across the Indus, Sindhis have seen the once-mighty river become a shadow of its former glory downstream of the Kotri Barrage as far as Hyderabad. They fear that there is not enough water for another large dam across the Indus.

Sindh claims that the Indus only continues to flow downstream of the Kotri Barrage because of rain. Hence in years of low rain and with a new dam in place, Sindh fears the river would stop flowing. Damming the Indus has already caused a number of environmental problems yet to be addressed. Silt deposited at the proposed Kalabagh Dam would further curtail the water storage capacity of Manchar Lake and other lakes and wetlands including Haleji Lake.

President Musharraf, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and other leaders, have promised "iron-clad constitutional guarantees" to ensure that Sindh get its fair share of water. However, these assurances mean little to most Sindhis, who claim that even the earlier 1991 Indus Water-Sharing Accord, a document already guaranteed by the constitutional body the Council of Common Interests, has been violated, and that Punjab has "stolen" their water without any concrete evidence.[citation needed]

Objections to the Kalabagh Dam in Sindh are widespread. The political parties of Sindh in the central cabinet who are supported by General Musharraf, such as the Muttahida Quami Movement, have strongly denounced the dam. Opposition towards the dam is such that the Pakistan Muslim League (N) (PML N) Sindh Chapter is in agreement with opponents of the dam. PML N's leader Nawaz Sharif, who as then Prime Minister of Pakistan, had stated in 1998 that he proposed to build the dam, retracted from his stance and declared that Sindh's viewpoint ought to be respected; no project, however essential, should be carried out that weakened Pakistan's Federation.[citation needed]

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) has two main objections to the dam:

KPK claims that the running of Cheshma-Jhelum link canal and overuse of water from the Tarbela Dam is a common occurrence.[citation needed]Although the entire canal system of the Ghazi-Barotha hydro electric project is in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the electricity generating turbines lie just 500 metres (1,600 ft) inside Punjab such that KPK is denied to resultant royalties.[citation needed]. While the reservoir will be in KPK, the dam's electricity-generating turbines will be just across the provincial border in Punjab. Therefore, Punjab would get royalties from the central government in Islamabad for generating electricity.[citation needed]. Punjab has however agreed not to claim any royalty on generation of resources from the Kalabagh Dam.

Concerns have been voiced that large areas of the Nowshera District would be submerged by the dam and that the wider area would suffer from water-logging and salinity, as has occurred with the Tarbela Dam. As the water will be stored within the Kalabagh Dam as proposed, water levels in city areas up to 200 kilometres (120 mi) away will rise.[citation needed]. However, engineers with expertise on dam construction repeatedly deny that Nowshera City could be submerged by the dam's lake. Punjab follows a paradoxical policy when it comes to canals to be run out from the Kalabagh Dam. It talks of a right bank canal which will supply water to D I Khan, but in dialogue with Sindh, rejects construction of the right bank canal as unfeasible.[citation needed]

Balochistan is not directly affected by the dam. Most nationalist Balochis claim that the dam is an instance of the grievances of smaller provinces not being taken into account. They have not commented on the dam following its cancellation.

The Prime Minister of Pakistan, Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, announced that the fate of the project would be decided by a plebiscite. The decision came after Pakistan faced an extreme power crisis and acute water shortages. The government is currently seeking alternative locations for the dam.[2]

December 2004: General Pervez Musharraf, President of Pakistan, announces that he would build the dam in the larger interest of Pakistan.

29, November 2012: The Lahore High Court (LHC) orders the federal government to construct the Kalabagh Dam.[9]

A form of gender-based violence, an honour killing is the homicide of a member of a family or social group by other members, due to the belief the victim has brought dishonor upon the family or community. The killing is viewed as a way to restore the reputation and honour of the family.^[1]In Pakistan, honour killings are known locally as karo-kari (Sindhi: ڪارو ڪاري, Urdu: کاروکاری‎). Karo-kari is a compound word literally meaning "black male" (Karo) and "black female (Kari). Originally, Karo and Kari were metaphoric terms for adulterer and adulteress, but it has come to be used with regards to multiple forms of perceived immoral behavior. Once a woman is labeled as a Kari, family members consider themselves to be authorized to kill her and the co-accused Karo in order to restore family honour. In the majority of cases, the victim of the attacks is female with her attackers being male members of her family or community.^[2]

Karo-Kari is an act of murder, in which a person is killed for his or her actual or perceived immoral behavior. Such "immoral behavior" may take the form of alleged marital infidelity, refusal to submit to an arranged marriage, demanding a divorce, perceived flirtatious behaviour and being raped.^[3] Suspicion and accusations alone are many times enough to defile a family’s honour and therefore enough to warrant the killing of the woman.^[2]

In patriarchal cultures, women’s lives are structured through a strict maintenance of an honour code. In order to preserve woman's chastity, women must abide by socially restrictive cultural practices pertaining to women's status and family izzat, or honour, such as the practice of purdah, the segregation of sexes.^[4]Honour killings are frequently more complex than the stated excuses of the perpetrators. More often than not, the murder relates to inheritance problems, feud-settling, or to get rid of the wife, for instance in order to remarry. Human rights agencies in Pakistan have repeatedly emphasized that victims were often women wanting to marry of their own will. In such cases, the victims held properties that the male members of their families did not wish to lose if the woman chose to marry outside the family.^[5]

A 1999 Amnesty International report drew specific attention to "the failure of the authorities to prevent these killings by investigating and punishing the perpetrators."^[6] According to women's rights advocates, the concepts of women as property and honour are so deeply entrenched in the social, political and economic fabric of Pakistan that the government, for the most part, ignores the daily occurrences of women being killed and maimed by their families.^[7] The fact that much of Pakistan's Tribal Areas are semi-autonomous and governed by often fundamentalist leaders makes federal enforcement difficult when attempted.^[8]

In 2011, human rights groups reported 720 honour killings in Pakistan (605 women and 115 men).^[9] Some discrepancy exists between reports. For instance Pakistan's Human Rights Commission reported that in 2010 there were 791 honor killings in the country,^[10] while Amnesty International cited 960 incidents of women alone who were slain in honour killings that year.^[11]Over 4,000 cases were reported in Pakistan between 1998 and 2004. Of the victims, almost 2,700 were women and just over 1,300 were men; and 3,451 cases came before the courts. The highest rates were in Punjab, followed by the Sindh province. Lesser number of cases have also been reported in North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) and in Balochistan.^{[12] [13]} Nilofar Bakhtiar, advisor to Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, stated that in 2003, as many as 1,261 women were murdered in honour killings.^[14]

Data and its absence is difficult to interpret. One reason is the reluctance to report honor killings to official bodies. Another reason is that honor killings are occurring in cultural and social contexts which do not recognize the criminality of honor killings.^[1] The very nature of honour killings reflects deeply entrenched notions of "honour" and "morality," in which the perpetrator is upholding justice and order when the victim commits deplorable social acts. Honour killings thus inverts the roles of "right" and "wrong." The perpetrator becomes the champion of justice while the victim becomes the perpetrator and accused of the criminal act. Furthermore, human rights advocates are in wide agreement that the reported cases do not reflect the full extent of the issue, as honour killings have a high level of support in Pakistan's rural society, and thus often go unreported.^[15][16] Frequently, women killed in honour killings are recorded as having committed suicide or died in accidents.^[16]

In one of the most publicized honour killing cases committed in Pakistan, Samia Sarwar was murdered by her family in the Lahore office of well-known human rights activists Asma Jahangir and Hina Jilani in April 1999. As Sarwar sought assistance for a divorce from her first cousin, her family arranged her murder after the shame felt in her attempt to marry a man of her choice. The police did not make any arrests or pursue prosecution as Sarwar's family is highly well known in elite, political circles. The 2000 award-winning BBC documentary, "License to Kill," covers Samia's killing in Pakistan.^[17]Amnesty International reported that on 27 April 2010, Ayman Udas, a Pashtun singer from the Peshawar area, was shot to death apparently by her two brothers who "viewed her divorce, remarriage and artistic career as damaging to family honour." No one was prosecuted.^[11] In 2008, three teenage girls were buried alive after refusing arranged marriages.^[18]

A widely reported case was that of Taslim Khatoon Solangi, 17, of Hajna Shah village in Khairpur district, which was widely reported after her father, 57-year-old Gul Sher Solangi, publicized the case. He alleged his eight months’ pregnant daughter was tortured and killed on March 7, 2008, by members of her village claiming that she had brought dishonour to the tribe. Solangi's father claimed that it was orchestrated by her father-in-law, who accused her of carrying a child conceived out of wedlock, potentially with the added motive of trying to take over the family farm.^[19][20]

Human rights are natural rights, fundamentally ensured to every human, regardless of nationality, race, gender, or ethnic group. Through the ongoing work of the United Nations, the universality of human rights has been clearly established and recognized in international law. In March 1996, Pakistan ratified the CEDAW, or the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.^[27] By ratifying CEDAW, Pakistan promises to abolish discriminatory laws and establish tribunals and public institutions to effectively protect women.^[1] CEDAW, as a human rights treaty, notably targets culture and tradition as contributing factors to gender-based discrimination. In 1993, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, entreating states not to "invoke custom, tradition, or religious consideration to avoid their obligation" to eliminate violence against women.

According to Amnesty International, if a government is negligent in prosecuting perpetrators, it is liable and complicit in those abuses.^[28] The role of the modern nation-state is to ensure full protection of universal human rights. The prevalence of honour killings in Pakistan underscores the Pakistani’s systematic government failure in ensuring fundamental human rights to women. However, international organizations and feminists globally have been criticized for upholding a Western-centric agenda when engaging in honour-killing activism. Long-standing discourses on the universality of human rights versus cultural relativism indicate tensions in international activism for women's rights. But cultural relativism can be partially resolved when local activists make clear that cultural customs are harmful to women and in violation of international human rights standard. Cultural and religious customs are constantly evolving and it is necessary to partner with regional activists in Pakistan to be in the forefront for demanding change.^[29]

Human rights activists in Pakistan have been on the forefront of change and reform to end the practice of honor killings. Emphasizing universal human rights, democracy, and global feminism, Pakistani activists seek legal reform to criminalize the practice and protect victims from abuse. Asma Jehangir, chairperson of Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, and Hina Jilani are Pakistani lawyers reinvigorating civil society to become critical of the Pakistani state’s failure to ensure fair rights and benefits to its female citizenry. Jehangir and Jilani founded Pakistan's first legal aid center in 1986 and a women's shelter called Dastak in 1991 for women fleeing from violence. Other notable Pakistani activists working on reporting and deterring honour killings include Aitzaz Ahsan, Anis Amir Ali, Ayaz Latif Palijo, and Shahnaz Bukhari.^{[30][31][32][33][34]}

In September 2010, the Punjab law minister announced that violent crimes against women, including honour killings, would be tried under the country's Anti-Terrorism Act.^[11] On December 8, 2004, under international and domestic pressure, Pakistan enacted a law that made honour killings punishable by a prison term of seven years, or by the death penalty in the most extreme cases.^[35]Women and human rights organizations were, however, skeptical of the law's impact, as it stops short of outlawing the practice of allowing killers to buy their freedom by paying compensation to the victim's relatives. This is problematic because most honour killings are committed by a close relative.^[26] In many cases, the family of the victim and the family of the accused are indistinguishable, so negotiating a pardon with the victim's family under the Islamic provisions becomes ineffective. Former judge Nasira Iqbal told IRIN the bill allowed close relatives of the deceased to escape punishment with ease.^[36] In March 2005 the Pakistani parliament rejected a bill, which sought to strengthen the law against the practice of honour killing declaring it to be un-Islamic.^[37] The bill was eventually passed in November 2006.^[38] However, doubts of its effectiveness remain.^[39]

Siraj ul Haq (born 5 September 1962) (سيراج الحق) also known as Sirajul Haq is a Pakistani Islamist conservative politician who was elected as the chief of Jamaat-e-Islami, a social and political conservative party in Pakistan having objective to establish Islamic laws in Pakistan. He also serves as the senior minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, serving in the Pervez Khattak administration.[1]

Haq was born in the Upper Dir District, did receive his master's degree in Political Science from the Peshawar University. He had been the Chief of Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba from 1988 to 1991.[2]

He was elected to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly in the 2002 election from the platform of Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal and was made finance minister in the provincial cabinet under the leadership of Akram Khan Durrani. However, he resigned in protest against the deadly US drone strike on a Madrassa in Bajaur Agency which resulted in the deaths of 86 children. His party boycotted the 2008 election. In 2013, he contested on Jamaat-e-Islami’s ticket and was elected to the assembly.[3]

Haq remained the Deputy Ameer of Jamaat-e-Islami until 30 March 2014 when he was elected as the Central Ameer of Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan.[4] He remains immensely popular in his constituency and known for his modesty among friends and foes alike.[5]

Rustam Shah Mohmand is senior Pakistani diplomat, political scientist and a politician who specialises in Afghanistan and Central Asian affairs. He has served as Pakistan's Ambassador to Afghanistan, Interior Secretary of Pakistan and has held position of Chief Commissioner Refugees for around ten years. He is also the central leader of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and member of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Advisory committee headed by Imran Khan which advises the provincial government on development and planning.^{[1] [2]} He graduated in civil engineering and humanities and then joined the civil service of Pakistan.^[3][4][5]