Karachi/Islamabad:
The Federal Government has decided to establish a high-level negotiation committee led by the Vice Prime Minister Ishaq to address the concerns raised by the Popular Party of Pakistan (PPP) and other parts on the Indo channel project, the sources of the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) on Monday said on Monday.
According to sources, the Committee will include ministers for planning, water resources, energy and food security, as well as the prime minister on political matters, together with water and agricultural experts. The Committee aims to resolve the controversy of the channels through the negotiations, they added.
The Indo Canals project has caused mass protests in Sindh. The PPP Sindh government is firmly against any channel on the Indo River. The president of PPP, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, threatened to withdraw from the ruling coalition if the project was not abandoned.
Several other civil society parties and organizations have also been organizing sitting in several places in the province to oppose the project. They express the apprehension that the new channels would aggravate the shortage of water in the province.
Feeling the severity of the subject, Prime Minister Rana Sanaullah’s advisor spoke with Senior Minister of Sindh, Sharjeel Memon, and offered a dialogue to solve the problem. Rana spoke with Memon on Monday and both parties agreed to carry out the negotiation process.
A key leader of the PML-N told Express PAkGazette that the concerns of the PPP and other parts about the channel project and the protests in the province were discussed at an advisory meeting of the leadership of the main parties a few days ago.
At the meeting, the president of PML-N, Nawaz Sharif, and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif agreed that the problem should be solved through negotiations. Consequently, the PML-N decided to form a negotiation committee to commit to the PPP and other interested parties.
The source said that the negotiation committee would end with the approval of the Prime Minister, and added that Shehbaz could also meet with President Asif Ali Zardari and the president of the PPP, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, to find a friendly solution to the issue.
“The Government Committee will also hold conversations with other parts on this issue,” said the source, added that these couples would take place in Karachi and Islamabad. “A joint action plan will decide to solve this problem,” said the source.
According to the sources, the prime minister could call a meeting of the Common Interests Council (CCI), if necessary, while the PML-N also weighs the option of calling a conference from all parties to the project.
Meanwhile, Rana Healthy had a telephone conversation with Sharjeel Memon, his second in so many days, to discuss the issue of channels. Both parties agreed to continue the consultation process. Rana emphasized that the PML-N is committed to solving all problems through mutual understanding.
He stressed that the participation of water from one province could not be transferred to another province under the water agreement. He added that the distribution of water is an administrative and technical issue, which can be addressed to appropriate administrative and technical levels.
Separately, the Minister of Water Resources, Moeen Wattoo, told the media in Okara that the ambiguities on the issue of new channels and the distribution of water would be eliminated soon and that the matter would be resolved in accordance with the law of the authority of the Indo River System (IRSA).
“Those who give themselves to the score of the water issue will fail. The Cholistan channel will obtain water from the participation of Punjab and, according to IRSA’s law, no province can prevent another province from using its part of water,” he told reporters.
Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif had commissioned Rana Sanaullah to contact the PPP leaders and the problem would be solved after discussions.
“We should sit and talk about the problems that Pakistan faced and achieve an understanding to solve them. The PPP is our ally in the Federation and, if God wants, the water problem will be solved soon,” said the minister.
(With the entry of our Okara Atiqur Rehman correspondent)
