Thursday, March 16 2006 16:43 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Islamabad: Pakistan has for the second time put off the ground-breaking ceremony of the controversial US$ 6.5 billion Basha dam on Indus river which was objected to by India, even as it rejected New Delhi's statement that the 'Northern Areas' where the project was being built were its 'integral' part.

President Pervez Musharraf was scheduled to take part in the ceremony today but an official announcement said last night it had been postponed 'due to inclement weather'.

No new date was given. Officials said the President will perform the ground-breaking ceremony in the 'near future.'

Earlier, Musharraf planned to lay the foundation stone in the first week of last month but that was also put off.

Pakistan Foreign Office Spokesperson Tasinim Aslam, however, denied that the postponement had anything to do with the objections raised by India recently.

India has last week protested to Pakistan saying that the dam would be constructed in the Northern Areas which came under the erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir state, which was an 'integral part of India by virtue of its accession to it in 1947". Also the reservoir would inundate parts of J-K.

"Not at all. The ceremony may have been postponed due to technical reasons but it has nothing to do with India's objections. In fact India has nothing to do with the construction of the dam," Aslam told sources here.

Aslam also said that Pakistan rejected Indian claim that Gilgit-Baltistan were its integral part. She was reacting to the March 10 statement by Indian External Affairs Ministry on Pakistani media reports about a new map being circulated on J-K depicting 'Northern Areas' as a separate entity.