‘If no water for Sindh, no port for Punjab’


Express July 11, 2010

KARACHI: Sindh can stop supplying gas to Punjab, block highways leading towards the province and cut its connection from seaports if Punjab tries to block its water, said Dr Kaisar Bengali, Adviser to Chief Minister on planning and development.

Addressing a seminar titled Democracy, Provincial Autonomy, Challenges and Future Prospects on Sunday, he said the decision of the Indus River System Authority (Irsa) acting chairman to open the Chashma-Jhelum link canal was a violation of the Irsa act.

This irrational attitude of the Punjab bureaucracy is not new, Bengali claimed, adding that they have been controlling more than their share of the nation’s resources.

“Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa would have no other option but to ink [transit] agreements with India if we cut off their link of Port Qasim and stopped supplying gas,” he said.

Punjab has forgotten that the province receives rainfall as all the clouds head towards to from Sindh, the adviser said with a smile.

The participants of the seminar resolved that the Chashma-Jhelum link canal should be closed and demanded for the federal government to honour its commitments and agreements regarding the distribution of the Indus waters.

They also claimed that the Irsa acting chairman should be punished for violating regulations.

He went on to say that Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) is now confined to Punjab and 50 per cent of the parliamentarians who have fake degrees belong to the party.

Meanwhile, Sindh Assembly Speaker Nisar Ahmed Khuhro said that the Sindh government has achieved the National Finance Commission (NFC) award after a 19-year struggle. The people opposing the government’s policies had signed the NFC award allotting only 37 per cent of the share to the provinces, he said, adding, “Credit should be given to the present government for giving 56 per cent share of the finances to the provinces.”

Published in The Express Tribune, July 12th, 2010.

COMMENTS (21)

Hassan chaudhary | 13 years ago | Reply i love to see the version of Chief Minister Sindh and his cabinet on the CJ link canal. Earlier they were of the view that the canal is issue of their "Life and Death" and will not let it open at any cost. But now the CM say they have got enough water even after opening of the canal. besides, every one want to know about the element being hatched against PPP led government. Shah had promised that he will expose them within two days, which has almost been completed. I personally enjoy listing and viewing the versions of Sindh government. Keep it up Shah Saheb
Think therefore | 13 years ago | Reply And all this is happening in Sindh because Punjab is taking its share... how sad.... despite the fact that the IRSA has reps from all provinces... Provincial water shares are calculated on an agreed formula. Water discharge at the point of receipt in Sindh is measured. What the general sindhi is unware of is the fact that since land holdings are much larger in sindh and the fuedals much stronger... there is a lot of corruption in the use of the water. The formula decided by all the provinces does not account for this corruption and why should it... several independant consultants were hired to study how much water is needed to be dumped into the sea to keep it at bay.... their recommendations were scientifacally allocated in the distribution formula.... but why is Sindh hell bent on factoring in corruption losses into the formula... on a ligher note... sindh should fire the clouds with silver iodide before they cross over to punjab....
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