Over 35 years ago, Chashma Barrage in district Mianwali had uprooted and financially damaged over two hundred thousand people who were mostly scattered without provision of alternate accommodation and employment opportunities by the then Punjab government. Earlier, the AJK government had arranged commendable rehabilitation facilities for the Mangla dam affectees. The Mianwali affectees could have been compensated by giving them a fraction of the multi-billion rupees benefits that were being derived, and are still being derived, from Chashma hydel power and two mighty canals, one each for the NWFP and South Punjab but they were not. It may be of interest to your readers to learn that Mianwali suffered the worst type loadshedding and voltage fluctuation even before the present crisis despite 484 MW electric power being generated from Mianwali while a housing scheme in Rawalpindi was exempted from loadshedding till recently. In fact, expropriating the natural resources of the interior but not sharing their benefits with the local population is the norm as far as the Pakistani State is concerned. The disastrous consequences include the present opposition to some major projects. A typical example is Sui gas utilization for over 50 years while abject poverty prevailed in the local population of Sui, Balochistan. Luxury projects worth over Rs. 5.7 billions are being executed in the F-9 Park of Islamabad alone these days and they are being developed with tax money from the provinces. -ENGR. M. AKRAM NIAZI, Rawalpindi, September 05.