ISLAMABAD : Supreme Court on Monday decided to conduct hearings overKalabagh Dam and water cases in next week.

Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar said that now, the courtwill hear these cases on first priority as water scarcity is a biggestproblem of the country. I have reopened 32-year-old cases, he added.

He also assured to hold proceedings over all such petitions and directedthe claimants to get ready.

On September 16, 1991 the Council of Common Interest (CCI) had given a goahead to the dam in its sixth session. Interestingly, the then fourprovinces had approved and shown consent for construction.

In the ninth meeting of the CCI on May 9, 1998, the case was reviewed.Further interestingly both the sessions were held during ex-Prime Minister(PM) Nawaz Sharif’s government. Despite the fact that CCI had green lightto the project, the case had to go to the court.

Lahore High Court (LHC) ordered federal government on November 29, 2012 tostart construction. However, the governments in the past several tenuresseem to have catered to political interests only.

In addition to the high courts (HC), the Supreme Court (SC) of Pakistan wasalso approached in the matter as numerous pleas were filed from time totime. Replies were also sought from the government but Kalabagh Dam remainsin ink till date.