Hyderabad:
After having minimized the nationalist political leaders of Sindh as an unit without a mandate, the political councilor of Prime Minister Rana Sanaullah contacted two of them on Tuesday, requesting a meeting with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on the controversial channel project.
Sanaullah called the president of Sindh United Party (SUP), Syed Zain Shah and Qaumi Awami Tehreek (Qat), President Ayaz Latif Palijo as well as Jamiat Ulema-E-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) Sindh Chapter General Secretary Allama Rashid Mehmood Soomro.
Shah, who also heads a guild of 17 parties entitled ‘Darya Bachayo Tehreek [save the river movement]’told L’Express PK Press Club that Sana had told him that the government wanted to find a mutually enlarged solution to the current dead end.
“I told him that I should consult all the allies as well as with the representatives of lawyers and farmers before responding to their invitation to the meeting,” he said. According to him, no details on the time and the place of the meeting was discussed. “I do not know, but there may be prerequisites in Reunion, which we will learn after consulting all the allies.”
Palijo frankly told the Prime Minister’s advisor that there was generalized anger and agitation in the Sindh against the canals. “But the problem can be solved if the government immediately cancels the project.”
While responding to the invitation of the meeting, Palijo told Rana Sanaullah that the political parties protesting against the channels made decisions after the consultation. “All Sindh’s political parties agree that the government should withdraw from the project.”
There is a massive protest movement in the province against the six new channels to be built on the Indus. The national and industrial highways have been blocked by sit-ins at more than a dozen sites, including four sit-ins by the legal fraternity with their central camp in Babarloi bypass, Khairpur.
Sunday and Monday, Rana Sana spoke with the Sindh’s main minister Sharjeel Memon, and discussed the issue. Rana Sana said the federal government was open to talks on the project to appease Sindh’s concerns. Memon also accepted the need for talks about the issue.
Tuesday, Sana spoke with Soomro and gave discussions on the controversy of the canals. However, according to sources, SOOMRO stressed that other political parties in the province, including nationalist parties, and lawyers should also be included in the consultation process.
Soomro impressed by the Prime Minister’s advisor that labor on controversial channels should be stopped immediately before starting the talks. He clearly indicated that Jui Sindh had a firm position according to which there was no compromise on Sindh water.
Meanwhile, in a statement, Rana Sanaullah said that no one intended to steal Sindh water. He added that the Sindh government was ready for dialogue on the issue. “This case has been brought to the attention of the Prime Minister, who will make an appropriate decision on this subject.
Commenting on a speech by the president of the PPP, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, during a public gathering in the Sindh, in which he warned that the problem of the distribution of water could endanger the federation, the advisor said that “many things are delivered in a passionate speech” but there should be a limit to what was indicated.
(With the contributions of our Islamabad correspondent)
