ISLAMABAD, Dec 28: The opposition launched a strong parliamentary offensive against the proposed Kalabagh dam on Wednesday at the start of a Senate debate.

The offensive was launched after a ruling party legislator’s move to put off discussion by offering an official briefing on the controversial project failed to gather much favour.

Awami National Party (ANP) leader Asfandyar Wali and two other opposition senators vowed to resist the construction of the dam at all costs calling the issue a battle for control over water of River Indus with serious implication for the future of Pakistan.

Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sher Afgan Khan Niazi, though not a member of the upper house, tried to defend the project. He said that the Kalabagh dam was the best option in a series of big reservoirs.

The opposition’s onslaught came on the eve of an anti-dam rally to be held on Thursday at Jehangira in Nowshera district that critics say would be one of the fertile areas of the NWFP to be affected by water storage and logging resulting in the construction of Kalabagh dam.

Senator Asfandyar was also joined by ANP member Ilyas Ahmed Bilour from the NWFP and Raza Mohammad Raza of the Pukhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party from Balochistan.

Mr Asfandyar said that the government’s insistence on the going ahead with the controversial project could encourage questions about the 1940 resolution passed by the then All-India Muslim League in Lahore for the creation of Pakistan as a separate Muslim homeland in the sub-continent.

The ANP leader, who began his speech with an appeal for a cool-headed approach to the issue, saw the Kalabagh dam as a move designed to establish Punjab’s control over the Indus.

Mr Asfandyar described the project unsuitable even on technical grounds related to its cost, life, power generation and storage capacities and said the best option would be the Katzarah or Skardu dam in the Northern Areas that would produce more power than all other options put together and could last as long as a 1,000 years. Mr Niazi refuted the ANP leader’s arguments about the adverse effects of the Kalabagh dam such as the possible sinking of the NWFP towns of Nowshera and Jehangira.

He said the reservoir was needed to save water from going waste.

He regretted what he saw an attempt to paint Punjab as the culprit for political gains and asked opponents of the project not to put the future of the state at risk.

The minister, who is a member of the National Assembly from the Punjab’s Mianwali district where the dam is to be built over the Indus, said he would not mind even the merger of his district with the NWFP to entitle that province to receive electricity royalty of the project. “That will end the whole dispute,” he said.

Mr Niazi also rejected Mr Asfandyar’s fears that the dam would endanger country’s future and said: “Pakistan is

a reality and will remain a reality. The federation will remain and nobody will be able to harm it.”

In what was seen as move to delay the debate, Pakistan Muslim League chief whip Kamil Ali Agha had earlier proposed that officials of the Water and Power Development Authority should brief the house about plans for future dams like Kalabagh before such a discussion.

Leader of the House Wasim Sajjad endorsed the proposal, saying the government was ready to give such a briefing.

But opposition leader Raza Rabbani opposed the proposal and said that opposition senators already had sufficient knowledge of the issue and the ruling party could get briefings if they wanted.

The debate will resume when the house will meet at 3:30pm.