Hyderabad:
Nationalist and anticanal activists have accumulated pressure on the Popular Party of Pakistan for the withdrawal of their support for the federal government. In response to the pressure, the president of PPP Sindh, Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, has said that the protest of his party is the first step towards pressure on the government.
At a press conference in Hyderabad on Thursday, Khuhro reiterated that the PPP is being criticized for reinforcing the PML-N government and its policies.
“But, on the contrary, we are not in the central government or have any federal ministry.” He affirmed that the only purpose of the PPP behind what is perceived as the support of the N-League government is to see the continuity of democracy.
He argued that President Asif Ali Zardari has no authority to sanction or reject projects regarding the construction of six new channels in the Indo River. He said that the project was not taken before the Parliament for approval.
Khuhro said that PPP had reluctantly accepted the 1991 water agreement, but the titular government wants to change even that agreement. He pointed out that the Common Interest Council (CCI) is the platform that is supposed to resolve disputes such as the exchange of water between the provinces. However, he regretted that the CCI meeting has not been convened for years.
“More than 4 million land acres in the backstream of Kotri Barge have become incultivable due to water scarcity,” he lamented. “But I feel sad that the N-League has not learned anything from the political storm that Kalabagh’s dam had created in the country.” Khuhro also blamed the PML-N for silently accepting the construction of the Thall channel for a military general. He explained that the water for the controversial Cholistan Canal, whose objective is to convert the desert region into an extensive green, will be extracted from the Indo through the Major Canal and the Sutlej River.
