ISLAMABAD, 4 January 2005 — An eight-member Pakistani delegation left for New Delhi to hold talks on the contentious Baglihar Dam. Federal Secretary of Water and Power Ashfaq Mehmood led the delegation which also comprised the Indus Water Commissioner Syed Jamal Ali Shah and other experts.
Pakistani water officials will hold talks with Indian officials from today to Jan. 6 to seek solution for the dispute in the light of Pakistan’s objections over construction of Baglihar Dam. Pakistan has declared that it will go to the World Bank if the issue was not settled in the meeting.
Foreign Office spokesman Masood Khan has said that the US is not pressurizing Pakistan on the Pak-Iran gas pipeline project. “Pakistan has taken a principled stand on the Baglihar Dam issue. However, bilateral talks are under way again after the assurance by India for forward movement for the solution of the issue,” Khan said.While giving the weekly Foreign Office briefing, the spokesman said that technical and financial issues for the Iran-Pakistan gas project are in place with certain reservations however Pakistan agrees on the issue and now it is India’s turn to take a decision in its own interest.
In another development, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has said that the agriculture-based Pakistan needed to be turned into a knowledge-based country, harnessing technology in agriculture and eradication of rural poverty with prosperity taking place.
The prime minister was addressing a select gathering in Karachi at NED Engineering and Technology University under the aegis of Hussain Ibrahim Foundation. Shaukat Aziz told that the services of expatriate Pakistani experts in different sectors would be obtained for bringing latest technologies to Pakistan in these sectors.
He said that a mere 2.9 percent of the total population of Pakistan, presently reach the level of graduation, “which is quite poor and the government is planning to double the figure in next five years.”
Meanwhile, political circles and those close to the ruling Pakistan Muslim League are claiming that another change in the Sindh setup is on the cards and the powers that-be are engaged in developing consensus on a suitable replacement for Sindh Chief Minister Arbab Ghulam Rahim.
They are of the view that the expected change was aimed at keeping the opposition at bay and developing an atmosphere of political understanding in the province.
The sources claimed that the powers that-be were considering two options: to nominate Ghulam Murtaza Jatoi, elder son of former caretaker Prime Minister Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi, for the chief minister’s slot.
A former federal minister, Murtaza Jatoi, could not contest the general elections in October 2000 because he was not a graduate then. Later, he passed his BA examination.
This was the reason why his family had fielded his younger brother Arif Mustafa Jatoi and cousin Farhad Jatoi in the general elections and both the inexperienced youth entered parliamentary politics after being elected MPAs. Arif Jatoi was inducted into the Sindh Cabinet as minister for food and agriculture when Ali Mohammed Maher was the chief minister. He resigned on Dec 23, saying it was his family’s decision. His resignation came after his father, Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi, met President Pervez Musharraf during the latter’s visit to Karachi.
An official handout issued by the chief minister’s office on the resignation of Arif Jatoi had mentioned that Murtaza Jatoi would hold the portfolios his brother did in the capacity of an adviser to the chief minister, but even after 10 days no notification has been issued in this regard. According to a proposal, Chief Minister Rahim would nominate Murtaza as his successor at a party or Cabinet meeting and the latter would be asked to get himself elected to the Sindh Assembly.
