Imran Khan attended groundbreaking ceremony of Mohmand Dam
02 May, 2019
Prime Minister Imran Khan and former chief justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar are attending the groundbreaking ceremony of the Mohmand Dam on Thursday.
The Mohmand Dam is being constructed on the Swat River and it will be completed at a cost of Rs183 billion by 2024. The dam has the capacity to store 1.2 million acre feet of water. Upon completion, it will generate some 800MW of electricity.
The construction of the dam is said to be imperative to resolve the problems of water scarcity and electricity shortfall in the country. A sum of Rs2bn has been allocated for the project in the Public Sector Development Programme 2018-19. However, a number of questions have been raised over the project.
Federal Minister for Water Resources Faisal Vawda, Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa, Defence Minister Pervez Khattak, Federal Minister for Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony Dr. Noorul Haq Qadri, Governor Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Shah Farman and Chief Minister Mahmood Khan were also present on the occasion.
The former CJP Mian Saqib Nisar had paid close attention to the issue of water scarcity and ordered the creation of the Dam Fund in July last year ─ a fund that appealed to the general public and overseas Pakistanis for donations for the construction of the Mohmand Dam and the Diamer-Bhasha Dam.
The top judge's initiative was later joined by the prime minister. Within a span of five months, a total of Rs8.46bn was deposited in The Supreme Court of Pakistan and the Prime Minister of Pakistan Diamer-Bhasha and Mohmand Dams Fund, according to State Bank of Pakistan data in December 2018.
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