KARACHI / HYDERABAD: The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) on Tuesday staged demonstrations and rallies across Sindh against new canals planned to be extracted from Indus under a federal plan.
PPP leaders described the plan as a threat to the province’s water resources, provincial rights and agricultural survival. They demanded immediate shelving of the plan.
Thousands of people from all walks of life took part in widespread rallies held in all major and smaller towns of Sindh, right from Larkana to Thatta.
They flooded streets of their respective areas, waving banners and raising slogans against the ‘anti-Sindh’ project.
PPP leaders, allies of the federal government, also accused Islamabad of attempting to turn Sindh barren by diverting its water resources to other regions.
Demands immediate shelving of controversial scheme
In Karachi, a huge rally was organised outside the Karachi Press Club where senior party leaders, including Mian Raza Rabbani, Waqar Mehdi and Sadia Javed, addressed the participants. They highlighted the ongoing water shortages in the coastal regions such as Sujawal and Badin, where sea intrusion has already consumed large swaths of farmland.
“If these canals are constructed, Sindh will turn into a desert, driving millions into starvation and displacement,” said Raza Rabbani.
He condemned the plan of new canals calling it ‘death sentence’ to Sindh, and warned that these canals would obliterate millions of acres of Sindh’s fertile land.
In his address, Waqar Mehdi said that the PPP, following the ideology of its founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, believed in strong federation but “it’s so unfortunate that the federal government is making every move that threatens the federation”.
“The federal government insists on 1991’s water accord but the fact is that the water accord has not been implemented in its true spirit,” he said.
“The federal government should come out with its crystal clear stand that when Sindh objected over the three-tier formula of water distribution, then why water distribution is not being done on the basis of the para-2 of the accord. When we have the forum of Council of Common Interests (CCI) available to us to decide about provinces objections regarding water distribution, then why the federal government is avoiding convening its meeting?”
In Larkana, the party’s district body took out a big rally from Zulfikar Bagh to Jinnah Bagh to join the Sindh-wide protest.
MNAs Khursheed Junejo and Nazir Bughio; MPA Jamil Soomro, who is also the political secretary to PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, Larkana Mayor Khair Muhammed Shaikh, Special Assistant to Chief Minister Tariq Anwar Siyal, former MNA Apa Naseeban Channa, Dr Sakina Gaad and others participated in the rally. Carrying banners and placards inscribed with the slogans of ‘No more canals on River Indus’, the protesters marched up to Jinnah Bagh, where the leaders delivered their speeches.
The participants also included the party’s taluka and town chapters’ office-bearers and members.
