Army brigade to guard Dasu Dam workforce
Secretary Ministry of Water Resources on Wednesday informed the Public Accounts Committee that an army brigade is being moved at the site of Dasu Dam to provide security to the Chinese company workforce.
He said this while replaying to a question asked by Senator Mushaid Hussain Syed regarding resumption of work on Dasu Dam, which was suspended following a terrorist attack at the bus carrying the Chinese company’s work force. At least 13 people, including nine Chinese nationals were killed in the blast.
The secretary said that an army brigade is going to be moved at the site of Dasu Dam within next few days. He said it is expected that the construction work on the project would be resumed within this month.
He informed that the Chairman WAPDA is not present in PAC meeting because he is in a meeting at the Military Operations Directorate along with Deputy Ambassador of China in Pakistan.
“We have assured the Chinese that we will ensure foolproof security in future”, he added. The meeting of the subcommittee of PAC was held at Parliament House with MNA Riaz Fatyana in the chair.
Meanwhile, discussing an audit para regarding encroachment over 4248 kanals of WAPDA’s land, it was informed that the said land is occupied by local people as well as government department. The auditors pointed out that neither any effort was made to take up the matter with the AJK government nor the case was pursued against private persons that caused a loss of billions of rupees.
In response, the Secretary informed the committee that the original encroached land is only 596 kanals and a total of 39 cases are pending in civil court from where the encroachers have taken restraining orders. The PAC after discussing the matter referred the matter back to the Ministry of Water Resources to reach an amicable solution with the AJK government.
