Sir you have commented on my article Indian water aggression or genocidal war? As published on Friday, 09 March 2012 in The Nation. It was based on the talk delivered at a seminar, a day earlier. It is a surprise for those who know that you have been participating in many discourses and events in concerned circles. You are demanding facts and figures but from whom? Why do you declare information as half baked if you do not have the facts and figures? Indus Waters and IHK is a deadly serious matter and we may avoid such public statements in the interest of the fatherland. Here is the brief synopsis of my personal interaction with yourself on firstly the water issues between India and Pakistan and secondly the KBD imbroglio which is the handy work of Indian interest groups. You sent me your kind email of 11 April 2009 stating and I quote: “I have had the privilege of reading your proposed “CIBSA” in response to India’s ICID, courtesy Mr. Masood Hasan who had lent me your papers”. Unquote. Since the CIBSA proposal relates to my recommendation for a “Commission of Indus Basin Strategic Analysis” would be our response to the Frankenstein monster created by India in 1950. The ICID (International Commission for Irrigation and Drainage) is for the Indus Waters issue not a benign NGO but an arm of RAW. Their international networks are the reason that we lost the key technical issue on the Baghliar-I although it is a blatant violation of the letter and spirit of the Indus Waters Treaty.
Our second encounter was at a joint PTV program on 04 May 2010. Your kind email of 05 May to Pakpotpourri and copied to me states and I quote “I was invited by PTV last evening to a discussion program on water issues. No regrets at having to take a back seat in the presence of the eminent engineer Suleman Khan who gave us a masterly briefing on India’s plans on our rivers”. Unquote. In the same email you trash a protest lodged with IRSA by Sindh cultivators who are concerned about forced water releases for power generation which reduce water available as well as that a dam located in Punjab will facilitate out of turn withdrawals by Punjab. You end with a note that there is no reason for Sindh to oppose KBD.
Sir, you were one of the elders I had visited before participating in the Closed Door Conference on Kashmir Waters at New Delhi (29-30 July 2010). I told you of my several exchanges with Mr. Jamaat Ali Shah ex PCIW with whom I had interacted at different fora. One episode of around 22 August 2008 in a WAQT TV discussion exactly when Chenab flows were severely interrupted due to the Indians filling Baghliar-I reservoir. I had suggested that he resign if he was unable to obtain information and data on the IHK flows from his Indian counterpart. He was surely the most incompetent of our five commissioners since 1960. I took to India several hydrographs of IHK/western rivers to prove severe attrition of surface flows on a 30 years’ timescale. On my return from India you sent me your mail of 07 Aug 10 desiring another meeting between us.
No columnist can accurately respond to the financial fault lines you have discussed in your letter of 10 Mar 12. However your statement is extremely regrettable that half of Punjab is against KBD. The observations and analysis of the WRDC since its creation in Dec 1997 are that Punjab is +90 percent in favor of KBD as well as + 90 percent of south KP and Hazara division. The International Conference on Water Reservoirs convened at Islamabad by the WRDC on 09 Feb 1998 also came to this conclusion. The constant support to KBD by past and present giants in the hydrologic scenario including late SS Kirmani, late Lt. Gen. Dr. Ghulam Safdar Butt, Engr. Shams ul Mulk and Engr Saeed Akhtar Niazi is before the people of Pakistan. Their articles and correspondence in WRDC archives is my inspiration. I am merely a coordinator and do not work for personal interest. I will forward you whatever you need and expect that there will be no more public outbursts.
ENGR. Suleman Najib Khan,
Lahore, March 11.