As anti-canal protests flared up across Sindh, spilling onto highways and grinding intercity traffic to a halt, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has threatened to pull the plug on his party's parliamentary backing of the "stubborn" and "tone-deaf" federal government.
Bilawal fired a warning shot at the ruling ally's bows, demanding immediate scrapping of the controversial canals project or the PPP will abandon the government, leaving it stranded and severing all ties.
"The PPP is demanding that the federal government should immediately stop the controversial canals project and accept our objections, otherwise the PPP won't go along with you," he cautioned at his party's public meeting in Hyderabad on Friday evening.
As he addressed party supporters in Hyderabad, hundreds of lawyers and thousands of citizens - along with backers of various political and nationalist parties - had already taken to the National Highway in Babarloi, Khairpur district, where they dug in their heels with a sit-in against the controversial canal projects.
The protest, which began early Friday morning, threw a wrench into the movement of traffic between Sindh and Punjab, and caused a major bottleneck across districts in the Sukkur and Larkana divisions.
"We are opposing this project because at a time when separatist organizations are attacking us in K-P and Balochistan; at a time when in the name of religion and with the support of foreign powers the fire of terrorism is burning the whole country, you have started a controversy which can pit a brother against a brother and which can harm the federation," Bilawal warned.
The Bhutto scion further lambasted the government for being tone-deaf towards the provinces in general and the country's farmers in particular.
"The government's ally [PPP] and the country's president aren't ready to accept the project, then what is the reason behind your [N-league's] stubbornness?" he questioned.
Bilawal repeated that if the circumstances compelled him to choose between supporting the federal government to sustain itself in power or standing with the people who are opposing the canals, he will not bat an eye before opting for the people.
The PPP's chairman reiterated satisfaction over the government's hitherto accomplishments to contain inflation. However, at the same time he said they cannot tolerate economic killing of all farmers of Pakistan belonging either to Sindh or Punjab.
He went on to accuse the ruling PML-N of 'sucking blood' of farmers by stopping all the provincial governments from fixing support prices of crops and from buying wheat. "This is sheer cruelty. They have also decided to unleash a storm of taxes on the agricultural sector."
He reminded the PML-N that though the PPP has no cabinet ministries, without his party the government cannot function, the assembly's session cannot be held, economic initiatives cannot be taken and the government cannot even pass the annual budgets.
Bilawal said Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif should have acknowledged ground realities and backed down - announcing a halt to the project in light of the widespread and serious objections, at least until the concerns and deep-rooted mistrust are addressed.
"But I regret to see that he is not willing to budge, and if he won't back down, then neither will we," he asserted.
He wondered why, after all, does the government want to cultivate crops in the deserts of Tharparkar and Cholistan, and that too by constructing new canals. He lamented that such plans were being made at a time when the country was dealing with water shortage and even when the country's record of the last 25 years has been showing persistent water shortfall.
He maintained that he owned Cholistan and Tharparkar as much as he owned any other part of Pakistan, and that he also wanted to see development and prosperity in those regions. But, he added, such development cannot be embarked upon at the cost of the farmers and peasants who have been toiling away for years to till their crops in other regions.
He advised the federal government to evaluate and apply advanced farming practices to grow crops in the arid and desert zones. He shared the example of bio-saline agriculture which is being practised in Tharparkar with promising results during initial years of the trials.
"I am ready to sit with you [N-league's government] to prepare a 50-year plan for agricultural development and I will show you how can we make the results possible."
Bilawal further blasted accused the bureaucrats and policymakers sitting in Islamabad of being 'deaf and dumb' towards the grievances and demands of the people living in different nooks and corners of the country.
He reminded the government that the PM's predecessor in the office — a reference to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's leader Imran Khan — used to consider himself a god.
He claimed that Khan had approved two of the six canals which are now being pursued by the PML-N's government. However, he recalled, his party launched a stiff opposition to that project and ensured that these were not initiated. "Khan, who wanted to construct the two canals, was sent home through a no-confidence vote due to PPP's struggle."
Commenting on the PPP's victory in the by-polls on NA-213 in Umerkot district, Bilawal said his party's candidate Saba Talpur was confronted by an independent candidate of PTI, Lal Malhi, who enjoyed support of at least 17 political parties.
However, he thanked the people of Umerkot for defeating all those 17 parties to elect the PPP's MNA with a thumping majority of around 80,000 votes.
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