PESHAWAR – The inauguration ceremony of the Mohmand Dam has been postponedagain this month.
In a meeting between Prime Minister Imran Khan and State Minister for WaterResources Faisal Vawda, it was decided that the groundbreaking ceremony ofthe much awaited dam project would be held on January 17.
Mohmand Dam is a proposed multi-purpose concrete-faced rock-filled damlocated on the Swat River approximately 37 km north of Peshawar and 5 kmupstream of Munda Headworks in Mohmand District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Its inaugural ceremony was to be held on January 2 but was rescheduled dueto a controversy that emerged following the award of the contract of thehydropower project.
Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar, who has paid special attentionto the issue of water scarcity and had ordered the creation of the DamsFund in July last year ─ had expressed his displeasure for changing thedate set for the groundbreaking ceremony of Mohmand Dam and even refused toattend.
“You changed the date without informing us and did not even think it wasappropriate to tell the top judge. The government does not even have thecourtesy to ask the chief justice regarding changing the date, now I mightnot go to the groundbreaking ceremony,” the top judge had remarked.
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“The prime minister saw his schedule and changed the date, he did not seethat we also have work. Now tell the prime minister to go inaugurateMohmand Dam himself,” he added.
The top judge and PM Imran Khan were to be the chief guests of Sunday’sevent.
Last month, the dam contract was awarded on a single-bid basis to aconsortium of three companies led by Descon, a company previously byAdviser to the Prime Minister on Commerce Abdul Razak Dawood, in which heand his family members currently hold ownership stakes.
China Gezhouba has 70 per cent share in the project while Descon and VoithHydro have 30 per cent combined.
