JALALABAD (Pajhwok): Presidential candidate Dr. Abdullah Abdullah on Tuesday promised to rebuild Nangarhar’s canal system and construct mega hydropower dams on Kunar and Kama rivers.
Abdullah, who finished second behind President Hamid Karzai in the 2009 elections, told his first-ever campaign rally in in Jalalabad he would initiate work on small hydropower plants along the slopes of Spin Ghar mountain.
Accompanied by his running mates, the former foreign minister said that he would completely overhaul the Behsud Bridge and reconstruct the Khogyani-Jalalabad, Jalalabad-Torkham and Jalalabad-Kabul highways, if elected to power.
“I will establish a university in Laghman because it has been a long-standing demand of the people. I will overhaul the grand canal project in Nangarhar,” he promised.
The rally was organised at the Sherzai playground, where Wolesi Jirga member Haji Hazrat Ali urged the participants to vote for Abdullah in the April elections.
A resident of eastern Laghman province, Rassoul Khan, who attended the rally, said he would vote for Abdullah. “I have come here on my own will and I support Abdullah,” he said.
Another participant, Zuhra, told Pajhwok they had been told prior to the rally that participants would be served lunch and offered transport fares, but the organisers disappeared after the rally had ended.
“I did not know for whom the rally is organised, but when I reached the venue I saw Abdullah,” she said, complaining she was unable to return home due to lack of money.
The rally addressed by Abdullah was attended by around 7,000 people, making it the largest in Nangarhar since the election campaign began on Feb. 2.