Sindh Senior Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon has said the PPP and its provincial government have explicitly declared that they are not going to allow the construction of six new canals on the Indus.
Addressing a ceremony in Tando Jam on Saturday, Memon looked askance at the protest movements which the PPP's opponents are trying to stir on the canals' issue.
"The PPP and the Sindh government have said the canals won't be built so for what reasons the protests are being staged?" he questioned. He reiterated that PPP's Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah have rejected the project.
He argued that the political opponents of his party in the province have nothing to show in terms of their performance during their stints in power.
Memon credited the PPP for burying the Kalabagh dam project, giving provincial autonomy, the National Finance Commission (NFC) award and even renaming NWFP province as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
He blamed the opponents for attempting to "poison" the minds of Sindh's people who have always supported the PPP in the elections.
"In every election the PPP single-headedly faces and defeats electoral alliances in the province. The next elections are not going to be different either," he added.
The PML-N led federal government's controversial proposal to construct six new canals on the River Indus to irrigate the Cholistan desert in Punjab continues to sour relations between two key allies.
The PPP on January 12 lashed out at Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal for dismissing Sindh's objections to the canal project as "baseless".
The party drew attention to the widespread protests across Sindh against the canals, asserting that the people of the province have expressed severe reservations and resentment over the projects.
The PPP also questioned the federal government's failure to convene a meeting of the Council of Common Interests (CCI), the constitutional forum for resolving interprovincial disputes, to address water-related concerns.
Later, on February 17, a massive march led by the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) and the Qaumi Awami Tehreek (QAT) was staged between Sehwan in Jamshoro district to Dadu in protest against the federal government's plan for the new canals.
The march saw participation from thousands of demonstrators rallying against what they called an attempt to rob Sindh of its water rights.
Addressing the participants in several towns along the route, the leaders denounced the Green Pakistan Initiative, alleging that it was designed to benefit a handful of elites at the expense of millions of Sindh's farmers and labourers.
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