Lawyers threaten to block railway tracks

Province-wide protests grow as legal fraternity rally against perceived water injustice

HYDERABAD:

The legal fraternity, which has already blocked the National Highway in Sindh at two different locations in protest against construction of the six canals on the Indus River, has now threatened to block the railway tracks.

President of Karachi Bar Association Advocate Amir Nawaz Warraich, who is leading the sit-in, has given two days to the federal govt to revoke the project. Warraich conveyed this message while speaking at their protest camp on the highway in Babarlu, Khairpur district on Saturday.

He warned that their next lag of the protest will start from the evening of April 21 when they will start to block the railway tracks so that the movement of trains between Sindh and Punjab can be stopped. Warraich blamed PMLN's federal government for acting like a sub-nationalist entity whose primary purpose is to pursue the interests of Punjab.

He pointed out that doctors, engineers, teachers, writers, poets, lawyers, journalists, students, women and children are all protesting against canals in Sindh but the govt remains indifferent. "The N-league will have to give a shut up call to its ministers. The federation should fear the day which ignites hatred among the constituent provinces."

Warrich stirred passions of the people of Sindh cautioning them that if they did not take part in the protests for the Indus River, with which their history, culture and civilization is deeply intertwined, the river will never forgive them. "If this river stops, our hearts will stop beating."

The outgoing President of Sindh High Court Bar Association Advocate Ayaz Tunio emphasised that they will not return home until the govt issued a notification to cancel the project.

Advocate Abdul Ghani, who led another protest on the highway at Dera Maur in Kandhkot-Kashmore district, said they have blocked the highways connecting Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan border. According to him, three roads from Punjab and one from Balochistan enter Sindh through that point.

Meanwhile, in Ghotki district the workers of nationalist parties held a sit-in demonstration in Ubauro, which also connected Sindh with Punjab. Similar highway blockages were reported from over half a dozen other locations.