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Islamabad: In his first public interaction since retirement on January 17, 2019, former Chief Justice of Pakistan Saqib Nisar said he never meant for the new water reservoirs to be solely constructed from funds generated through the campaign he initiated.
“I rather wanted to raise public awareness on this sensitive issue,” Nisar said, in an address at the Lahore Literary Festival (LLF), where he was invited to join a panel discussing Pakistan’s water scarcity problem on Friday.
“The purpose behind the campaign to raise funds for new water reservoirs was only to make people understand how important it is. If through this donation we are able to generate another Rs15 billion, it is an achievement. This money was never intended to be used 100pc for building.”
Pakistanis today are more aware on the need of new water reservoirs than ever before, he said.
Only a day earlier, Nisar faced criticism by senior leaders of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) for ‘misguiding’ the nation in the name of dam funds.
“A total of Rs9 billion (Dh236 million) was generated by CJP-led drive whereas some Rs13 billion (Dh341 million) was spent on the media campaign for the new dams,” PML-N leader Ahsan Iqbal said at a press conference.
The PML-N leaders have called for recovery of the money spent on advertisements from Mian Saqib Nisar.
Referring to criticism of his initiative, the former Chief Justice said he was prepared to take feeback on whether the directive to build this dam was a bad decision, on the part of the Supreme Court and himseflf, or if it was a good action for the people of Pakistan in the future.
“People have been coming to me to donate their entire life savings,” Nisar said. “Small children came to me. I witnessed their passion and I’m sure it will continue.”
He said suggestions had also been made to raise funds through treasury bills and bonds.
The former chief justice also, at the opening of his speech, shared with the audience how the idea to involve the public in dam funds struck him.
“This is directly connected to the right to life,” Nisar said.
“Pakistan’s constitution says if it is a question of fundamental rights then the Supreme Court has the unfettered right to enforce that right for public good.
“Thus I Issued a direction to the government for the purpose of the fundamental right to life,” he said.
Panellist Ahmad Rashid Bhatti said, in his 40 years of service in water resources, he never saw people so sensitised about water scarcity issues and the looming crisis as he had seen during the former judge’s awareness drive.
“What we could not do in years the former chief justice did in a few months,” he said.
