Serious Issue Over Canal Extraction from River Indus: Can It Be Resolved?

ARY NEWS

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00:00So, starting from you, Mr. Apnaan, I have already commented on cricket, but when we saw the address of Mr. Sadr,

00:10in which he praised the government as a whole, that there were a lot of challenges that have been overcome.

00:19But this issue, the issue of Cholistan, the reservations of the People's Party are present there,

00:25and at the same time, they are talking about water issues, and a lot of voices are being raised.

00:30And, by the way, raising a voice from Sindh was in its place, but if Mr. Sadr is talking about this,

00:35that means it is something serious. So, what is happening on this, what is being decided, what discussions are taking place?

00:40In the name of Allah, the most Beneficent, the most Merciful.

00:42You see, Mr. Sadr is the President of our country, and he is also an important ally of ours.

00:49And his reservations are being considered, and whatever issues are there, they will be appraised, updated,

00:58and only after that will we take this matter forward. And the issue of water is a very sensitive issue.

01:04So, we will onboard all the stakeholders in this, and then we will take this matter forward.

01:10Okay, the reason is that this is not only in Pakistan, but it is being said all over the world that water is such a commodity

01:15which cannot be produced, which cannot be preserved. And if there are wars in the coming days,

01:20then there will be water issues as well. And then you can see the issue of Kashmir as well,

01:24that too is somehow related to this. So, it would be better if this is sorted within…

01:29Yes, but the thing is that in the past, it has also happened that due to the reservations of Sindh,

01:34for example, the Kalabagh Dam was not built.

01:36Yes, it was not built.

01:37Although, there were so many campaigns for it, everything happened, but eventually,

01:40the matter of Sindh was decided on that only.

01:42Although, Mr. Musharraf also tried a lot on that.

01:44Yes, a lot of people tried, but it did not happen.

01:46If it would have been built, then there would have been an increase in the life of the other dams as well.

01:51You would have got 3,600 megawatts of electricity, 6 billion acre feet of water would have been stored.

01:55A lot would have happened.

01:56Yes, a lot would have happened. But the thing is that this is a federation,

01:59so it is more important to take all the provinces forward in building the dam.

02:02And then the Basha Dam is being worked on.

02:06That too, you see, it had to be completed from 2008 to 2012, by 2014.

02:11Even now, if the dam section is completed, then it will be a big thing.

02:15If the dam section is completed, then there will be more focus on it.

02:17Because the problem of electricity was not as much as it was in the past.

02:21Now, it is more of a matter of dispatch than of handover.

02:23Yes, it is more of a matter of dispatch.

02:24It is more important to implement it.

02:25So, keeping all these things in front, we will take everyone forward.

02:29Mr. Umair, there has been a lot of protest today during the President's speech.

02:32What is the situation? What is the point?

02:37You have given very harsh statements. You do not consider them as a sign of loyalty.

02:40No, before the sign of loyalty, let's see what the fundamental protest is.

02:44Today was a joint session. And this is the second joint session.

02:48And what is the significance of this?

02:51Two Senators are not present.

02:54One of our MNA is not present.

02:56Don't they have the right to sit in this parliament?

02:59Do they have the right to ensure that these people should have come?

03:06They did not come.

03:07When you put it on the corner like this, then ultimately the opposition has to protest.

03:12And then you saw the atmosphere in Iwan.

03:15What was the significance?

03:17If you dissect that speech, the first speech and look at it,

03:21the parameters are the same.

03:23You talked about the same Benazir Income Support Program,

03:26you talked about the mangrove forest in Sindh.

03:29In fact, you said that we brought water from Tajikistan for Balochistan.

03:34This was an addition.

03:35The country there is not able to manage its own water.

03:38Millions of acres of water is wasted every year.

03:41But they say that it is necessary for the delta.

03:44No, it is absolutely necessary for the delta.

03:46You will leave the water for the delta only when you store it somewhere in the rainy flood season.

03:54There is no practical wisdom behind it.

03:57They have fought on small things, but no one is focused on big projects.

04:02Ultimately, what is happening is that the farmers are suffering.

04:05You said good things that the interest rate has increased by 22% in your speech.

04:10But did you highlight what we are going to do for our 1 crore 80 lakh Pakistani below poverty line?

04:18Then you said about the salary class.

04:20I said that this time keep your hands light on them.

04:23But in the last 6 months, the addition of 100 billion rupees was not collected from this salary class.

04:29So, there are all repercussions of that.

04:31There will be fallouts.

04:32But you do not think that the position of the President is left quite ceremonial.

04:37He is the symbol of loyalty, he is the head of the state.

04:40But the real work is of the Chief Executive, that is, of the Prime Minister.

04:44So, he can only talk.

04:46You can talk, but it should be holistic.

04:49You should talk from every angle.

04:51When you are sitting, you are not a representative of any party.

04:54Or you are not a representative of any region.

04:57You have to do it all across.

05:00And the same principle.

05:01And look, they are not that weak.

05:03Their party is a coalition partner in the center.

05:06They can implement a lot of things on it.

05:08Look, you have very lovingly brushed aside terrorism.

05:13We should see the sacrifices of law enforcement agencies for terrorism.

05:17What is the root cause?

05:19You did not touch upon Afghanistan in your debate.

05:22What to do about it?

05:23Where are the issues arising from?

05:25We stayed silent on it.

05:26Because you recently came to China.

05:28So, all your focus was on China, China, China and that debate.

05:32What is the bearing of the US on our foreign policy at the moment?

05:35So, there are a lot of gaps in the speech.

05:38The point is that there is a lot of criticism on the person who wrote the speech.

05:42But what was your reaction?

05:44You must have heard his speech.

05:46It is obvious that touching on many topics is a very difficult sort of a thing.

05:49But did he miss something?

05:52No, I think he spoke quite balancedly in his speech.

05:57Obviously, the President will take up the broad-based issue.

06:01There is CPEC in it.

06:03Our foreign policy is linked to it.

06:05Our industrialization is linked to it.

06:07Then, he spoke about the issue of water in Balochistan.

06:10Then, he said that the economic indicators are better.

06:15He spoke about political stability.

06:19I think it was a good speech.

06:23In which, he summarized all the issues.

06:30He tried to summarize all the issues.

06:32Yes, he tried to summarize all the issues.

06:34So, I think it was a good speech.

06:36It is a good proposition of his.

06:38If we can get additional water from Tajikistan or somewhere else,

06:42then we need a lot of water.

06:45Not only we have to build a dam,

06:47but if we get a new source of water, it will be even better.

06:50But the real thing is that you have to improve your storage here.

06:54The world is also thinking about how big the projects are.

06:58For example, the Bhasha project.

07:00The world's biggest roller compact is the concrete dam.

07:028 million acre feet of water.

07:04There are a lot of issues related to it.

07:06The stability of the land is also affected.

07:08If there is a seismic activity, it can also have an impact.

07:12India is working a lot on run-of-river projects.

07:16For example, the Dasu Dam is a run-of-the-river project.

07:20Neelam Jhelum is also a run-of-the-river project.

07:23The Bhasha project is important because

07:27we get 6 million acre feet of water from Mangla and 7 million acre feet from Tarbela.

07:32And the population is increasing.

07:34There is a lot of water requirement.

07:36If we complete the Bhasha project in the next 5 years,

07:39then we will get 8 million acre feet of additional water.

07:41Does that seem likely?

07:43Work is being done on it.

07:45But it is slow.

07:47If we complete the dam section,

07:49then we will get 1.5 million acre feet of water.

07:53But if we complete the dam section,

07:57then we will have more storage capacity.

07:59Work is also being done on Mehman.

08:01We will get 1.5 million acre feet of water from there.

08:03So these are the two water requirements.

08:07Before this, we had big projects of 1960s and 1970s.

08:11After that, this will be the biggest project,

08:13which will have 8 million acre feet.

08:15Yes, this will be the largest dam in Pakistan.

08:18Roll Compact Concrete Dam.

08:20It has sold 4,500 megawatts.

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