Canals: PPP announces protests in Sindh

The Pakistan Peoples Party Sindh on Friday announced to launch a movement against the controversial Indus canals projects and called protest rallies in all district headquarters across the province on Tuesday, March 25.

PPP Sindh President Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, while speaking at a press conference with Waqar Mehdi and Ajiz Dhamrah, at the Sindh Assembly, criticised the "dictatorial federal government" warning that the PPP protests would force the Centre to abandon the canals projects.

"The PPP will take out rallies and protest demonstrations in all district headquarters of Sindh on March 25 against the controversial six canal project. I appeal to the people of Sindh to come together and fight together against these canals," Khuhro said.

"I salute the people protesting against the canals project and we and support their struggle. We will contact all political and nationalists parties in connection with the protest movement, so that we can end this anti-Sindh project through a joint struggle," he added.

Khuhro regretted that certain political parties in Sindh criticised the PPP, but they never brought out rallies against the canals project. The canals project is more dangerous than the Kalabagh Dam, it will turn Sindh barren."

The PPP, as well as many other nationalist parties are opposing the construction of six new canals from the Indus. PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari had been openly speaking against this "unilateral decision" of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N)-led coalition government.

Also, President Asif Zardari in his address to the joint session of parliament earlier this month minced no words in cautioning the federal government against its unilateral decision to carve out new canals from the Indus river system, saying the project should be 'abandoned' as he would not support it.

The controversy had erupted over a federal government plan to dig six new canals to irrigate barren lands in Punjab's Cholistan area under the Green Pakistan Initiative. The PPP, which governs Sindh, says that the decision has been taken unilaterally and that it would harm the province's agriculture.

Khuhro told the press conference that by starting the construction of the Cholistan Canal without the approval of any constitutional forum, the federal government had revived the memory of former military dictator Pervez Musharraf, who built the controversial Thal Canal through an executive order.

"Now the federal government of the PML-N is playing an authoritarian role," he said, adding that the Punjab government has unconstitutionally allocated budget for the Cholistan Canal," he said. "The PPP will fight against the canals project at all constitutional forums, as well as in the streets," he added.

"The PPP will not allow anyone to construct even a single canal from the Indus River. Just as the previous PML-N government had to withdraw from the Kalabagh Dam, the current PML-N government will have to withdraw from these six canal projects," Khuhro added.

In response to a question about the PPP being part of the ruling coalition, Khuhro stated that there were demands of the PPP to leave but the fact was that the party was not part of the federal government. He also warned against a conspiracy of forming a national government.