Pak threat on Baglihar has domestic fallout

When Pakistan took a decision to seek World Bank's arbitration in the Baglihar dispute with India, the last thing it expected was a domestic fallout.

A prominent regional party has threatened to approach the United Nations if the Pakistani government went ahead with its plan to build a controversial dam in the North West Frontier Province.

The Awami National Party, a NWFP political party founded by Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan, who was also known as Frontier Gandhi, has announced that if the government decides to execute the Kalabagh dam project, then it would take up the matter with international donor agencies, like the WB and the International Monetary Fund, besides the UN, to protect the rights of the Pukhtoon-dominated province.

"If Islamabad can move the World Bank over the Baglihar dam issue, why can't we raise our issues at the international level to protect the fundamental rights of Pukhtoons and the economic interests of our area?" ANP Senior Vice-President Haji Ghulam Ahmed Bilour told mediapersons in Peshawar on Wednesday.

"We are not going to keep silent as it is a matter of life and death for the people of the North West Frontier Province and Sindh," local daily 'Dawn' quoted Bilour, who also heads the ANP's special anti-Kalabagh dam committee, as saying.

• Baglihar: Pak decided to seek WB help

The leadership of the ANP, one of Pakistan's oldest parties, allege that the project would submerge large tracts of the province and benefit Pakistan's majority Punjab province.