Aziz invites Sindh lawmakers for talks

Published December 18, 2005

ISLAMABAD, Dec 17: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has invited all federal and state ministers and parliamentarians from Sindh to the Prime Minister’s House on Monday to remove any lingering doubts on the issue of Kalabagh dam, sources said on Saturday.

However, the sources said, none of the opposition members from Sindh had been invited to the meeting.

Pakistan Muslim League chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain had earlier invited ministers, federal lawmakers and senators of Sindh to dinner at his residence on the night between Thursday and Friday.

But only a handful of parliamentarians attended the dinner. Most of them have shown their reluctance to back Kalabagh dam’s construction on the grounds that it would incur the wrath of the people of Sindh and eliminate them from the political scene.

In this context, Chaudhry Shujaat contacted the prime minister and proposed that ministers and parliamentarians from Sindh be called for a meeting in order to remove their reservations on Kalabagh dam.

Consequently, the Prime Minister’s Secretariat extended an invitation to federal and state ministers, MNAs and senators belonging to the ruling party and its coalition partners to dinner at the Prime Minister’s House on Monday. Chaudhry Shujaat will sit in on the meeting.

A federal lawmaker from Sindh has warned that if legislators were forced to support Kalabagh dam, they would resign from their posts as the dam was not acceptable to the province.—Online

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