Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said Thursday that new channels will not be built from the Indo River unless a consensus is reached within the Common Interests Council (CCI), as political tensions continue to increase on the controversial project.
Speaking at a joint press conference together with the president of the Party of the Peoples of the Pakistan (PPP), Bilawal Bhutto Zardari in Islamabad, the prime minister said that the next meeting of CCI, scheduled for May 2, would formally support the agreement reached between the ruler League Muslim of Pakistan (PML-N) and the PPP.
The announcement follows intense negotiations between the two main partners of the coalition, with sources that indicate that the PML-N accepted all the demands of the PPP with respect to the construction plan of the channel.
The advance is produced in the midst of increasing disturbances in Sindh, where protests have exploded in cities such as Sukkur, Nawabshah and Daharki. The demonstrations were caused by the diversion proposed by the federal government of six new Channels of the Indo River, a widely opposite movement in the province.
Bilawal, accompanied by Sindh’s prime minister, Murad Ali Shah, and other high -ranking leaders of PPP, attended the high -risk meeting in Islamabad. CM Shah reiterated the firm Posture of the party, warning that although PPP does not seek to collapse the federal government, it retains the ability to do so if necessary.
Tensions reached a peak earlier this week when the Senate descended to chaos for rival resolutions in the channel project. PPP legislators organized a strike while PTI senators faced members of the ruling coalition.
In an attempt to climb the crisis, the law minister, Azam Nazeer, Tarar, promised that a decision would not be imposed unilaterally and emphasized that Sindh’s concerns would be addressed through constitutional consultations.
The special assistant of the Prime Minister of Political Affairs, Rana Sanaullah, also had the task of initiating direct commitment to the political leadership of Sindh. He assured those interested that the project would not be “dragged” and floated the idea of multiparty consultations.
The controversial project of the RS250 billion channel has not yet been approved by the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC), and currently remains waiting.
The problem has also tensioned the dynamics of the coalition. Last week, Bilawal warned that the PPP could consider retiring from the alliance if the matter was not resolved to the satisfaction of Sindh.
