Khanpur Dam is a dam located on the Haro River near the town of Khanpur, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly NWFP), Pakistan, about 25 miles (40 km) from Islamabad, Pakistan. It forms Khanpur Lake, a reservoir which supplies drinking water to Islamabad and Rawalpindi and irrigation water to many of the agricultural and industrial areas surrounding the cities.
The dam was completed in 1983 after a 15 year construction period believed to have cost Rs. 1,352 million. It is 167 feet (51 m) high and stores 110,000 acre feet (140,000,000 m³) of water.[1]
The adjoining Khanpur Lake is also the venue for Sarhad Tourism Corporation's annual airborne and waterborne sports gala. The event, termed as the 'biggest' in Pakistan was scheduled to take place between 9th and 11th April 2010.
The dam was built by Ayub Khan , Former President of Pakistan . The dam was believed by many to be a way for Ayub Khan to settle political scores with the feudal chief of Gakhars Raja Erij Zaman Khan.
The forefathers of local Gakhars Rajas were given much of the local land by the British during the nineteenth century. The British rewarded the Gakhhars for their cooperation in defeating the Sikhs, but deprived the local Awan and other farmers of their land. When the decision to build Khanpur Dam was made, the Rajas wanted to receive the compensation for all the land, thus depriving all the local inhabitants of their land-rights. The local residents desperately wanted to receive compensation or new land in the nearby New Khanpur.
The local community, led by Abdul Bashir Khan (the father of Saeed Khan), the young secretary of Khanpur’s WAPDA Union in the early 1970s, took on the Ghakhars and their friends in the Khyber Pakhtoon Khoa parliament. Amid threats and intimidation, the campaign succeeded in uniting most local villagers, who had nothing but their land. Abdul Bashir and his fellow activists decided to take their campaign straight to then NWFP Governor Hayat Sherpao by camping outside the Governor's House for days. Abdul Bashir and his fellow activists left Peshawar only after they had succeeded in winning the land rights for the people of Khanpur.
The locals were promised free water and electricity by WAPDA and then the Provincial and Federal governments, but are still waiting to this day.
PRIDE OF KHANPUR
Some people are born to create history among them was Raja Sikandar Zaman Khan (late) was grandson of a prominent Gakhars Chief Khan Bahadur Raja Jahandad Khan and uncle of presentGakhars Chief Sultan Raja Erij Zaman Khan. He was born in Khanpur, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He received his early education from Burnhall School in Abbottabad and Aligarh.
He was a veteran politician and started his political career as Member of the Abbottabad District Council in the 1950s, while his brother Raja Rukan Zaman (late) was Member Legislative Assembly, West Pakistan. He remained Chief Minister, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Minister for WAPDA, Education and Revenue respectively. He was also the opposition leader Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly and a Senior Minister in the Provincial Cabinet.
He was affectionately called "George" Sikandar Zaman in his youth - a reference to King George V, the monarch of India at the time of his birth in 1934.
His has 3 sons and a daughter (married to Pir oF Mohra Sharif)
- Raja Shahdab Sikandar - Ex Senior Executive Pakistan State Oil
- Raja Aamir Zaman - Ex District Nazim Haripur
- Raja Faisal Zaman - Current MPA and Ex Minister
