KARACHI/HYDERABAD: Various opposition parties of Sindh continued their agitation on Sunday against the proposed plan for constructing canals on the Indus River. At various demonstrations, leaders of the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA), Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), Sindhi nationalist parties and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) termed the canal issue a life-and-death matter for the province.
In Karachi, the GDA and PTI jointly staged a protest sit-in and later held a march against the proposed construction of six new irrigation canals on the Indus River. The protest sit-in was held outside the Karachi Press Club, from where the protesters later marched to the Empress Market in Saddar.
Speaking to the protesters, Pakistan Muslim League-Functional senior leader Sardar Abdul Rahim said the Sindh government had been propagating a false narrative on the canals' controversy. He said the concerned people of Sindh had taken to the streets against the proposed construction of canals from Karachi to Kashmore.
He said the commotion had been rife in Sindh with concerned people cursing the political quarters that had compromised on the legitimate interests of the province. The GDA leader appealed to the residents of Karachi to take to the streets against the construction of new canals considering the fact that the Indus River was the source of up to 85 per cent of the bulk supply of water to the provincial capital.
He warned that the situation of water scarcity in Karachi would aggravate if there was no flow of water downstream of the Kotri Barrage in the Indus River. Rahim said the concerned global agencies had issued the warning about the impending water shortage in Sindh. He appealed to the members of all ethnic communities residing in Karachi to stay united to conserve the Indus River water resource for their survival.
He said the pro-Indus River movement launched in Karachi would alert the entire country to this issue. He decried the Sindh government for its failure to provide basic healthcare and educational facilities to the natives of the province. Sindh PTI President Haleem Adil Sheikh said the rulers in Sindh should step down following the serious opposition and criticism they had faced on the issue of canals. He said President Asif Ali Zardari had backed the plan to construct new canals on the Indus River.
The people of Sindh had awakened to conserve the Indus River water resource for their future generations, he added. Meanwhile, at the Hyderabad Press Club, the Sindh Haari (Peasant) Committee organised a conference at the Hyderabad Press Club to explain the concerns of the people of Sindh against the canal project.
The conference was attended by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Jr, grandson of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Syed Zain Shah, Comrade Imdad Qazi, Samar Jatoi and farmer leaders and members of civil society.
Bhutto Jr of the Pakistan Peoples Party Shaheed Bhutto (PPP-SB) told the conference that the government’s actions over the years had separated the sea from the river. He said there was no water in the Tarbela and Mangla dams and asked wheter it was a fault of the people of Sindh.
He asked why the people of Sindh even had to ask for water. Bhutto Jr said the people of Sindh would not accept canals on the Indus River. “You cannot lecture us, go study geography,” he said to the proponents of the canal plan. “We have full rights over the Indus River, and we will not compromise on that.”
Later, speaking to the media, he said Sindh already had many issues. He said the agriculture sector in Pakistan had collapsed and the country did not need new canals. “Just improve the existing system and everyone will be happy,” he remarked.
He added that corporate farming would mark the death of Pakistani agriculture, stating that our neighbouring country adopted corporate farming that resulted in deaths. He asked the people of Sindh not to trust the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) as it never fulfilled any promise. He said the PPP came to power in the name of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto only to tarnish his name.
The PPP leaders did not even know the difference between Bhutto and Zardari, remarked Bhutto’s grandson. He said the opposition to canals in Sindh was natural. He said massive protests would force the authorities to close the canal project.
Addressing the conference, Syed Zain Shah, convener of the Sindh River Protection Committee, said the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) was a package created during the previous government and was being implemented by the current government.
He added that through the 26th Amendment, the judiciary was brought under control, and the importance of the Council of Common Interests (CCI) had also diminished. He said that before discussing the issues of land and water, the idea behind the SIFC should be rejected.
He said that currently, there was less water in the Indus basin system so no new canals should be built. “When we are already in a deficit, from where will the water for [new canals] from?” he asked.
Shah appreciated the fact that so far, the movement against the canals had been non-violent. “We must not let any violent elements enter the protest. They should be stopped. We have to move this movement forward within the legal framework," he told the conference.
In another major protest move, the JUI-F held sit-ins on major bridges on the Indus River in Sindh against the controversial canal project.
The demonstrations took place on various bridges on the Indus River including those in Guddu, Sukkur, Ranipur-Larkana, Moro-Dadu, Aamri-Qazi Ahmed, Jamshoro-Hyderabad and Thatta- Sujawal.
The protesters opposed the canal project and demanded that it be cancelled. Sindh JUI-F chief Maulana Rashid Mahmood Soomro visited sit-ins where he spoke against the canal project.
He stated that millions of people from Sindh had rejected the controversial canals by staging sit-ins across the Indus River. Soomro added that all the powers lied with the Pakistan Peoples Party that could get the project cancelled but still people had to hold sit-ins.
If the JUI-F had the same powers, it would have cancelled the controversial project within an hour, he remarked. He also stated that all the parties campaigning against the canals were patriotic and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari insinuating that they were anti-Pakistan was an extremely shortsighted move.