Pakistan: Tale of Dam Woes
NEW DELHI, Sept 16: Pakistan facing an unprecedented flood calamity had collected funds for a mega dam on the Indus River but ended up spending more on its advertisement than the funds collected for its construction.
According to reports in some Pakistani media, Pakistan collected $40 million for the proposed Diamer-Bhasha Dam on the Indus River, which is caught in a scandal.
nowhere near completion, but ended up spending $63 million on advertising it. A Pakistan Parliamentary Affairs Committee (PAC) also reported that $40 million was raised from the public for the construction of the dam, but $63 million was spent on advertising it.
The Diamer-Bhasha Dam was originally meant to be completed in the 1980s, but several factors such as environmental impact and escalating cost delayed the project. The dam, when constructed, will have a power generation capacity of 4,500 megawatts.
In 2018, former chief justice of Pakistan Saqib Nisar set up a fund for the construction of dam, the cost of which had escalated to $14 billion by then. People were asked to donate to the fund, the media reports said. Imran Khan, who was Pakistan Prime Minister then, also assumed joint leadership of the ‘joint venture’.
According to the report, in 2019, Nisar claimed that there was a shortfall of $6.3 billion and the fund was never meant for actually building the dam, but to raise awareness. Soon after, allegations of corruption surfaced.
A member of the Pakistan National Assembly claimed that more amount had been spent on advertising for the dam fund than was raised for it. The ‘joint venture’ had contributions from public, cricket team, top musicians, the army and government employees. The Pakistan Parliamentary Affairs Committee has summoned former chief justice Nisar to provide an explanation regarding the dam fund.
(Manas Dasgupta)
