Bilawal tells Centre to 'back off' from Indus canals

PPP chief addresses rally on ZAB's anniversary; Slams federal govt over 'irresponsible' project

HYDERABAD:

The Pakistan People's Party (PPP) on Friday conveyed to the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N)-led federal government in no uncertain terms to "back off" from pursuing the controversial project of constructing new canals on the Indus river.

PPP's Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari used the occasion of the 46th death anniversary of former prime minister and PPP founder Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto at Garhi Khuda Bux in Larkana, to communicate his objections to the canals project.

"The PPP won't allow you to take such an irresponsible decision which will cause harm to the Federation and to the PPP," Bilawal said. He contended that the project had become "inimical to that very national interest". He underlined that the PPP always gave preference to the national interest, even by rendering sacrifices.

"What is the national interest today?" he asked. "It is that all four brothers [provinces] have to be kept brothers." He asked the PML-N government to pay heed to the voices of opposition, emerging from the people of Sindh, South Punjab and even from Punjab against the canals.

"We want withdrawal from all such policies which cause harm to the Federation. If the public demands that the new canals aren't acceptable then the PPP will stand with the people not with your government."

However, in the same breath, he thanked the PML-N government for not according the approval to the project by the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC).

The PPP's chairman asked the government to also consider yearly reports of the Indus River System Authority (Irsa) which showed severe water shortage not only in Sindh and Balochistan but also in Punjab as well.

In a tacit recrimination, Bilawal took on the political opponents of his party in Sindh by reminding them it was his mother, former prime minister and PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto, who failed plans to construct the controversial Kalabagh dam in 1990s.

"After martyrdom of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto it was the PPP's government which formally buried that project and it was the then water minister Raja Pervez Ashraf of Gujjar Khan, who had announced that the dam project has been buried," Bilawal told a massive public gathering.

Long before that contentious issue came to the public's limelight, Bilawal said, he had already began struggle to secure water rights for all the provinces, fighting that case even at the global level.

He added that as foreign minister of Pakistan he convinced the world community to play its part to protect 'Sindhu' river by contributing to the efforts for its rehabilitation as the once 'mighty Indus river'. According to him, the foreign countries had pledged financial and technical support in that regard. "All that while the PPP's political detractors were sleeping."

Bilawal asserted that he belonged to Moenjodaro and that for thousands of years the people inhabiting those lands had only known agriculture as their economic mainstay. He recalled that the PPP's Central Executive Committee (CEC) meeting last year had publicly rejected the canals' project, while President Asif Zardari in his address to the joint sitting of parliament had also opposed the project.

Bilawal upbraided political opponents for suffering from "Zardariphobia" because they hold him responsible even for the natural calamities. He believed that President Zardari's slogan of "Pakistan khappay" has buried the politics, particularly of the sub-nationalist political entities, which had desired the slogan of "Pakistan na khappay".

Terrorism & separatism

Promising to fight and defeat terrorism once again, Bilawal said that professional killers supported by some foreign countries were perpetrating terrorism in Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) under the guise of "religion and nation".

"Can we deny this fact that because of foreign conspiracies and mistakes of our own country, the second wave of terror is at its peak in Balochistan and in K-P," he asked. He stressed the need for immediately launching a drive to fight against the savages, who were playing with the blood of Pakistani people.

According to Bilawal, removing sense of deprivation; prioritising underdeveloped areas for development and implementing provincial autonomy, besides making democracy and human rights functional were also essential, but fighting terrorism had become the priority.

"The fact is that terrorists have no religion or nation. They are toys and professional killers, who sell themselves, their religion and their nation to the global powers. On whose directions and with whose money they kill people of their religion and nation."

The PPP's chairman said that the terrorists were waging a war against Pakistan, emphasising that situation required unity among all political stakeholders on a one-point agenda, that was to defeat terrorism.

"There may be thousands of complaints against the Centre, the police and the army and we will keep making those complaints, which is our right. But, as far as confronting these terrorists is concerned every single worker of the PPP is standing with Pakistan."

He appealed to the opposition parties to play their part as patriot Pakistanis because the country was pitted against terrorists and the foreign conspirators.

Bilawal announced that his party was going to organise a series of public meeting and rallies under the slogan of 'Pakistan Khappay' to quell propaganda of anti-Pakistan elements. The first of such political shows will take place in Hyderabad on April 18. The PPP's chairman himself will address the event.