Bilawal vows to protect Sindhu River from Modi

HYDERABAD:

Buoyed by his party's stance with regard to the six canals project, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has vowed to protect River Indus from the Indian aggression.

"We can see that terrorism is just an excuse. The real target is our Sindhu river," he told a public meeting in Mirpurkhas on Thursday.

He appealed to the people to show a greater degree of enthusiasm in their efforts to protect the Indus from Indian in comparison to their several months long protests to stamp out the canals.

"You will have to work more harder to protect Sindhu from Modi [Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi]," he said, adding that the conspiracy of invading Pakistan's water ought to be taken up with the global community.

He claimed that when he was the country's foreign minister, the river faced similar threats from the neighbouring country which had wanted to get rid of the Indus Water Treaty, 1960.

He reminded the people that weeks before Modi's government unlawfully abrogated the treaty, he had already told the people in his public meetings about having defended the treaty during his stint on the international platforms.

"India had tried then and now again in the garb of the terrorism incident in the Indian occupied Kashmir, they have announced that they do not accept that treaty," Bilawal pointed out, saying that Pakistan also does not accept their illicit and unilateral decision with regard to the treaty.

The PPP's chairman said Sindhu is not just a river but it is "our culture, our history". "And not only mine because I live close to Moen Jo Daro which is the ancient Indus valley civilization, but as much as Sindhu is mine, the people of India also love Sindhu."

He said Indians know that history of both the neighbouring countries is associated with Sindhu. "Neither will we allow Modi to squeeze the neck of Sindhu, and God willing, the people of India won't either." Bilawal reiterated that Pakistan does not want war but if India attacked Sindhu then they know that either water or blood will flow in that river.

He reminded Indians that he is the son of a towering political figure, former PM and PPP's chairperson Benazir Bhutto, who was martyred by terrorists and, therefore, he should not be given excuses of terrorism. Bilawal asked Modi's government to catch the terrorists and hang them but avoid framing Pakistan for the incident.

"If India has any evidence that some Pakistani was involved in it, then our religion teaches us that killing one innocent is equal to killing whole humanity. Give us evidence and tell us who was that terrorist we will catch that terrorist and here in this same ground of Mirpurkhas we will hang them." He expressed hope that Pakistan will expose the real face of extremist Modi whose government pretends to be democratic before the world.

Canals

Congratulating the people over the recent decision by the Council of Common Interests (CCI) for shelving the canals project, he told that the council has also decided that in future decisions will not be made through majority but with consensus among all members. He regarded this as another great achievement of his party's political struggle which not just achieved mothballing of the canals project but setting a new precedent for the CCI as well.

He defended his father President Asif Ali Zardari against criticism of the PPP's opponents in the province. He recalled that at the December 27, 2024, public meeting the President had assured that neither Sindh's water will be given to any other province nor water of Balochistan, KPK and Punjab would be supplied to any other province. "But the political orphans still raise voice against President Zardari because they don't have courage to raise voice against those actually building the canals." He saluted President Zardari for giving him a team which he believed is capable and loyal and which represented the provinces well and solved problems in a political way.

Corporate farming

Obliquely responding to the second demand of the protesting lawyers and nationalist parties about giving up the corporate farming plan, the PPP's chairman announced that "we won't do the corporate farming rather we would start the public-private farming."

He disclosed that the government is planning to launch a public private farming model in the agriculture sector under which the small farmers, peasants and the big businesses will be made to work together.

He told that the Sindh government is going to launch three separate initiatives of issuing Benazir Agriculture Cards to small farmers and peasants; helping small farmers form large farmers' unions to secure financial assistance and technological support; and introduce the PPP mode.

He said if that three-pronged strategy for the sector emerged fruitful, the approach will be replicated in the other provinces as well.

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, PPP Sindh's President Nisar Ahmed Khuhro and other party's leaders from Mirpurkhas division also addressed the public meeting.