Hyderabad:
Sindh’s main minister Sharjeel Inam Memon said the PPP and his provincial government have explicitly declared that they would not allow the construction of six new channels in the Indus.
Addressing a ceremony at Tando Jam on Saturday, Memon watched punctually on the protest movements that the opponents of the PPP are trying to suspend the problem of the channels.
“The PPP and the Sindh government said that the channels will not be built, so why are the demonstrations staged?” questioned. He reiterated that the president of the PPP, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, and the chief minister of Sindh, Syed Murad Ali Shah, rejected the project.
He argued that the political opponents of his party in the province had nothing to show in terms of performance during their stays in power.
Memon awarded the PPP for having buried the Kalabagh dam project, granted to provincial autonomy, to National Finance Commission (NFC) and even to rename the province of NWFP as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
He blamed the opponents of having tried to “poison” the spirits of the people of the Sindh who have always supported the PPP during the elections.
“In all the elections, the PPP faces and defeats the electoral alliances in the province. The next elections will not be different either,” he added.
The PML-N has directed the controversial proposal of the federal government to build six new channels on the Industry river to irrigate the Cholistan desert in Punjab continues to worsen relations between two key allies.
The PPP on January 12, resulted in the Minister of Ossociation Ahsan Iqbal for having rejected Sindh’s objections to the Canal project as “baseless”.
The party drew attention to generalized demonstrations through the Sindh against the canals, saying that the inhabitants of the province have expressed serious reserves and resentment about projects.
The PPP has also questioned the failure of the federal government to convene a meeting of the Common Interest Council (CCI), the Constitutional Forum to resolve interprorcal disputes, to respond to water -related concerns.
Later, on February 17, a massive march led by the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) and the Qaumi Awami Tehreek (QAT) was organized between Sehwan in the Jamshoro district in Dadu to protest against the plan of the federal government for the new channels.
The march saw the participation of thousands of demonstrators rearring on what they called an attempt to steal Sindh with their water rights.
Addressing participants in several cities along the route, the leaders denounced the Green Pakistan initiative, alleging that it was designed to benefit a handful of elites at the expense of millions of Sindh farmers and workers.
