The Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah has tacitly warned Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz that Pakistan Peoples Party will withdraw its support for the federal government the moment the PPP realised that its requests against construction of six canals are falling on deaf ears. "If the PPP sensed that they [N-league's government] aren't understanding our democratic stance, we will not waste a minute to leave the federal government," he said while addressing the party's workers in Thatta district on Saturday.
However, in the same breath he added that it is also an agenda of the opposition parties to see ouster of the federal government. "But if we take a decision in haste and let the government fall, what will happen? Who will come? Will elections take place? And can our country afford elections at this time?" he raised these questions.
He blamed the opposition parties for yearning to see the departure of the incumbent democratic dispensation. CM Shah criticised the nationalist and opposition parties in Sindh for settling political scores in the garb of their anti-canal protests in which President Asif Ali Zardari's name finds more mention than the word canal.
He asked why the opponents try to implicate President Zardari for his alleged approval for the controversial canals behind closed doors and why they never mention that the President had publicly rejected the canals in his speech before the joint session of the parliament last month. The CM maintained that the PPP owns not just the Indus River but Chenab, Ravi, Sutlej, Beas and Jhelum rivers as well, adding that they will never allow construction of a project on any of these rivers which robbed water of Sindh's share.
CM Shah contested that the claim of the federal government and proponents of the canals project that up to 27 million acre feet water flowed down the Kotri barrage towards the sea is totally fallacious. According to him, there have been years when zero MAF water passed through Kotri towards the sea.
"Do you want to kill the inhabitants of coastal districts? You have already made them almost dead," Shah bemoaned. He recalled that the case for approval of the controversial canals is pending before the Council of Common Interests (CCI) whose meeting is not being called.
Acknowledging that the voices of approval in the CCI can outweigh him numerically, the CM asserted that he alone can fight the case because he has facts and proofs about water availability and the concerned laws standing by his side. "If they had the same they could have gotten this project approved from 2018 to 2023 from the CCI."
With some oblique reference the CM pointed out that some elements allegedly involved in the narcotics business in Karachi are also hiding behind anti canal politics. He warned them that the government will not let their alleged black businesses continue behind popular issues.
The CM apprised that Chairman PPP Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has directed him to visit all districts of Sindh during the month of April to mobilise the elected representatives and bureaucracy to prepare development schemes.
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