Protesters firm on demand for canals cancellation

Sit-in at Babarloi bypass enters eighth day

KHAIRPUR:

Protest leaders, staging a sit-in at the Babarloi bypass in Khairpur district, made it clear on Friday that the ongoing protest movement against the construction of controversial canals on the Indus River would continue until a notification cancelling the project was issued.

Lawyers, political and nationalist parties, and several civil society organisations continued their protest sit-in against the canals project at the Babarloi Bypass for an eighth consecutive day. Organisers claimed that so far, more than 200,000 people, including women and children, had participated in the protest.

Due to the sit-in, long queues of vehicles formed as traffic from Sindh to Punjab, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), and Balochistan remained suspended. Similar protests were also ongoing on many highways at Kamoon Shaheed, Dharki, Kandhkot, and other locations.

Addressing the protesters at Babarloi, Karachi Bar Association (KBA) President Amir Nawaz Waraich said there were reports of some police action against the protesters and warned that they would not yield to such tactics.

"I will tell the police officers that if you disturb the protesters or make any move, the entire Sindh will be shut down, and you will be responsible for the consequences," he warned. "Under no circumstances will we end the sit-in until a notification [cancelling the canals project] is issued."

Waraich stated that the federal government had been given two days to issue the cancellation notification. "If the notification is not issued by then, we will block the railway track at Rohri," the lawyer leader declared.

Speaking at the event, Allama Rashid Mahmood Soomro, the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) provincial chief, vowed that the struggle against the Indus canals would continue until the project was abandoned.

The JUI-F leader rejected Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's announcement on Thursday about suspending work on the canals and convening a Council of Common Interests (CCI) meeting to build consensus on the issue.

"When the prime minister issued the notification [approving the canals], did he convene the CCI then? Did he consult the ECNEC [Executive Committee of the National Economic Council]? Did he involve Irsa [Indus River System Authority]?"

Soomro argued that if the canal notification was issued without consultation, why was a CCI meeting necessary to withdraw it? "We will not accept this drama," he said, adding that the prime minister had the authority to cancel the project outright.

Commenting on India's suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty, Soomro warned: "When we refuse to share our water with Punjab, Balochistan, or Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, who is India to stop it? We will fight for our water-no matter what."