Kalabagh Dam for financing assistance, but due to strained relations with Afghanistan (a Soviet ally), this request was denied. The government then approached the World Bank, which agreed to finance the project. At this point in Pakistan's history, previous dam projects such as Mangla (under Ayub Khan) and Tarbela (under Zulfikar Ali Bhutto) never faced any opposition. Even Kalabagh was approved by the Central Development Working Party, without dissent. The issue of Kalabagh started to become politicized after the execution of the former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, a highly popular leader from the downstream province of Sindh. Adding to the controversy,
Mangla Dam 7-8 were manufactured by ACEC, Belgium and were installed in 1981, while the remaining two turbines are a make of Škoda, Czech Republic and were commissioned in 1994. These turbines are connected to umbrella-type generators which have a generation capacity of 100 MW. Hitachi, Japan had provided generators for turbines 1–4 and 7-8 while Škoda generators are connected to turbines 5-6 and 9-10. These generators are in turn connected to three-phase transformers. The transformers connected to turbine 1, 4 and 7 were manufactured by the Italy-based Savigliano. The transformers for turbine 5 and 6 are a make of , another