KHAPLU, Gilgit-Baltistan: A sit-in protest by hundreds in Pakistan’s northern Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) region entered its fifth day on Thursday as locals demanded the federal government compensate them for lands they gave up for the Diamer-Bhasha dam’s construction.
The government plans to build the Diamer-Bhasha dam on River Indus between Kohistan district in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and Diamer district in GB by 2028-29. It is estimated that plans to build the dam and reservoir will displace more than 4,200 families in nearby areas.
Once constructed, the dam will submerge a large section of the Karakoram Highway to China, Pakistan’s Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) estimates.
Hundreds of protesters staged a sit-in demonstration in Chilas on Sunday to demand the central government-owned WAPDA honor its previous agreements that were signed in 2010 and provide them compensation for lands they gave up, a fair reassessment of land compensation rates to reflect current market values as determined by the GB government, and the inclusion of every married couple in the Household Resettlement Package, also known as Chulha Package.
Civil society organizations, political parties and traders from different parts of the region have extended their support to demonstrators, urging the government to intervene and fulfill protesters’ demands. Maulana Hazratullah, the main leader of the protest, said they had told the central government to form a ministerial-level committee by today, Thursday, to resolve the issue.
“And this time, we will not negotiate with the provincial government,” Hazratullah told Arab News. He said protesters had not blocked the Karakorum Highway linking Pakistan to China and had instead protested near the Bab-e-Chilas area as they did not want citizens to suffer.
“We will march toward the dam and stop the work at dam site if the government fails to meet our demands,” Hazratullah warned.
GB Information Minister Eman Shah told Arab News that the provincial government was in contact with both parties, the protesters and WAPDA.
“There is no role of the provincial government in this matter because the construction of the dam is a subject of the federal government,” Shah told Arab News over a phone call.
“Gilgit-Baltistan Chief Minister Hajji Gulbar Khan himself is monitoring the situation.” Shah described the dam as a “very important project” of the country, saying that the demands of the protesters were genuine.
The Ministry of Kashmir Affairs, Gilgit-Baltistan and Safron later issued a notification announcing that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has constituted a seven-member committee to assess protesters’ demands and address their “genuine grievances.”
The committee will be led by minister for Kashmir Affairs, GB and Safron and will include the minister for water resources, GB chief minister, secretary of the ministry of Kashmir Affairs, GB and Safron, chairman WAPDA, GB chief secretary and any other member co-opted.
The $12-$14 billion Diamer-Bhasha dam should generate 4,500 megawatts (MW) of electricity, and a vast new reservoir would regulate the flow of water to farmland that is vulnerable to increasingly erratic weather patterns.
With a gross water storage capacity of 8.1-million-acre feet (MAF), the dam is expected to help irrigate 1.23 million acres of additional land.
China and Pakistan signed a memorandum of understanding in December 2016 for Beijing to help fund and develop Pakistan’s Indus Basin dams, though no timelines were released.
Pakistan estimates there is 40,000 MW of hydro potential. Pakistan has been keen for years to build a cascade of mega dams along the Indus flowing down from the Himalayas, but has struggled to raise money from international institutions amid opposition from its nuclear-armed neighbor India.
Those ambitions have been revived by China’s Belt and Road infrastructure corridor for Pakistan, a key cog in Beijing’s creation of a modern-day Silk Road network of trade routes connecting Asia with Europe and Africa.
