The Kachhi Canal project had been dropped at Bugti Mainland and the Central Government dropped a clear hint to all concerned that it is no more interested in completing the Kachhi Canal or the ambitious plan to make Balochistan a surplus province in food production.

Thus Balochistan and its people will continuously face the threat of food insecurity in years to come.

The Kirthar Canal was built by the British colonial rulers for the benefit of the British colonial forces. The Pat Feeder was built by the military dictator Ayub with a plan to settle retired military personnel in its command area to appease his military constituency and also break the perennial Baloch resistance to misrule and subjugation.

The Pat Feeder scheme failed following Baloch resistance to colonize their fertile land by the outsiders. The last Punjabi settler was forced to leave the area during the ‘Great Pat Feeder War’ which the Federal rulers tried to use to dislodge the NAP Government of Sardar Ataullah Mengal.

After that setback, it was decided not to develop water resources in future though Balochistan is not part of the Indus River System. However, the Karachi pressure group succeeded in building the Hub Dam as part of the plan to provide drinking water facility to ever expanding city of Karachi.

It was an exception to its strict sense. A highly vocal voice forced building the Hub Dam on the border of Karachi. There was a report that the Federal Government will not build any dam or canal in Balochistan till the Government and people extend support to the Kalabagh Dam. For this reason, the Mirani Dam project was blocked for 14 long years and it remained in the cold storage of the Planning Commission.

The Mirani Dam was planned by Nawab Akbar Bugti Government and his Government received a Russian delegation at the airport reached to negotiation the feasibility and other issues of the Mirani Dam. The Federal Government was so discourteous that it did not receive the experts who built dam in Egypt during the Jamal Nasir rule. The Russian delegation was received on the personal orders from the Chief Minister, Late Nawab Bugti.

However, General Pervez Musharraf was the man who ordered early construction of Mirani Dam and Kachhi Canal to meet the water shortage in Balochistan which faced a famine situation off and on. If the Federal Government is not interested to complete the construction of Kachhi Canal under the present geo-political situation or for any other reasons, it should permit Balochistan Government, as an agency of the Federal Government, to hold talks seeking massive assistance and loan for its most prestigious economic projects like Kachhi Canal, Gwadar Port, its railroad link with the Central Asian countries.

It may be recalled that the Asian Development Bank had earmarked 11.5 billion US dollar for development of railroad links between Gwadar Port and the landlocked Central Asian countries. The Pakistan and Afghan Government under Taliban shown no interest in the project, ADB kept the project in the backburner to this date. Only a future Government can take this out for implementation.

There was a vague reference from the Prime Minister in his speech at Sui saying that Rs 200 billion will be spent on water resources, Rs 400 billion on building roads and highways and Rs 15 billion for provide LPG gas facilities only to the District Headquarters in Balochistan.

If Rs 200 billion are for complete the Kachhi Canal or building new small and medium size dams in Balochistan. The issue is vague need an official clarification from the office of the Prime Minister.

Presumably, he was referring to building 1000 dams in Balochistan denying share of Indus water to Balochistan as per Water Apportionment Accords among the Provinces of Pakistan.

The Accords allocated 10,000 cusecs of water from the Indus River System for Balochistan in 1991. There was no infrastructure to use the Indus water in Balochistan, thus the share gone to Punjab and Sindh by design.