HYDERABAD: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Sindh President Nisar Khuhro on Thursday said that the issue of the six canals that has angered Sindh’s residents has not been brought before the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec), yet Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz visited the site of an unapproved project.
Speaking at a press conference at the residence of Maula Bakhsh Chandio, Khuhro said Maryam wants to incite Sindh’s people by showing off her self-confidence over the lack of an approved programme for Cholistan, on which Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Nawaz Sharif are silent.
He said that due to the non-distribution of water downstream Kotri Barrage, four million acres of Sindh’s land has already become uncultivable. Despite this, it is regrettable that the PML-N has not learned from the past, he added.
He also said that the Thal Canal was built by Pervaiz Musharraf without approval, on which the PML-N did not say a word and they are still silent today. President Asif Ali Zardari does not have the authority to approve any project, and no resolution or bill has been passed in the assembly to build the canals, he added.
Khuhro said that a caretaker government was unconstitutionally allowed to remain for 10 months. If the PPP had not supported the government, the assembly would not have existed and a third party would have come, he added.
He said PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari wants the National Security Council’s meeting called. If the land given under the Green Initiative project is government land, it has been given under an agreement, he added.
He also said that no one had a majority in the 2024 general elections. The PPP sent a message to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf founder for forming government but he refused, he added.
Khuhro said that two years ago the canals project was brought before Ecnec, where it was said that a project was needed for the Thal Canal command area, to which the PPP opposed, so the matter was postponed and left to the Council of Common Interests (CCI).
Following that, according to the 18th amendment, a CCI meeting must be convened every three months, but it has not been convened for three years, he added. He said that no amendment has been made to the Indus River System Authority (Irsa) Act, yet Irsa gave a false certificate to please the Punjab government that there is water, and canals can be built.