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