No new canals will be allowed on Indus River: Sharjeel

HYDERABAD: On the request of the Sindh government, nationalist leader Qadir Magsi called off a protest outside the venue of the PPP public meeting scheduled for today.

Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon reached Dr Qadir Magsi’s residence in Hyderabad on Thursday to meet him. Aajiz Dhamrah and other leaders also attended the meeting.

After the meeting, while talking to the media, Memon said he has come to Dr Qadir Magsi with a message from the Sindh government to end the Hyderabad Bypass protest near the PPP public meeting because it will give an opportunity to miscreants to create a law and order problem.

He said the public meeting will be held in connection with the 17th anniversary of the martyrs of the Karachi Karsaz tragedy at Hyderabad Hattri Bypass on Friday.

For Friday, Dr Magsi had also announced a protest against the planned construction of canals on the Indus River, but the Sindh government assured him that no canal would be built on the Indus River, he added.

Dr Magsi said that the lives of 60 million people depend on the water of the Indus River, and if a canal is built on it, the people here will be affected. Already under the 1991 water act, Sindh is not getting its due share, and downstream Kotri is not getting water which Punjab is not giving us and the delta is also affected, he added.

He said the federal government has talked about building a canal on the Indus River, which is not acceptable. If a canal is built for Cholistan, Sindh will become barren. The Sindh government sent Sharjeel Inam here after taking notice of the STP protest, he said.

Dr Magsi announced he was calling off of the protest and demanded the Sindh government take a firm stand on the issue in the federation.

Memon said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has made it clear to the PPP that Sindh is already getting due share of water and will not allow more canals to be built.

In response to a question, he said he condemned the violence on the Rawadari march in Karachi. He vowed that the killers of Dr Shahnawaz Kunbhar would be punished.

Growers to protest

A emergency meeting of the Sindh Abadgar Ittehad was held at the central office in Hyderabad, presided over by Nawab Zubair Talpur.

In the meeting, it was decided to start a phase-wise struggle against the construction of canals and corporate farming from the Indus River.

The growers said that they will not let the water of Sindh be diverted through six canals from the Indus River under the Cholistan project, and the people of Sindh will fully resist it, because this is a matter of the present and future of Sindh, on which no negotiations can be held.

They said the campaign will be conducted by contacting the political and social development organisations of Sindh on this matter. The Sindh Abadgar Ittehad will support a protest on this matter by the nationalist parties of Sindh.

It was decided in the meeting that a symbolic hunger strike and protest will be started from October 24 in Mirpurkhas. After that, there will be a phase-wise protest in all the districts, after which a symbolic hunger strike and protest will be held in front of the Karachi Press Club.

'Sindh be heard'

Sindh PPP President Nisar Khuhro said that PPP has rejected the approval of the Cholistan Canal in CDWP; therefore, water disputes and these matters should be presented to the CCI and the objections of Sindh should also be heard.

He said that the water agreement of 1991 is not being implemented and Sindh is already facing a shortage of water, so where will they bring water to the Cholistan Canal?

Khuhro was speaking at a seminar organized by the People’s Cultural Wing at the Hyderabad Press Club to pay homage to the martyrs of the October 18 tragedy.

He said it is not acceptable for Sindh to take out the link canal of the Indus River. Chamsha Link Canal was built for flood situations, but now water is continuously fed into it by draining it.

He said the water of Sindh is stolen by installing pumping machines between Taunsa and Guddu barrages, so Sindh is worried that the water of Sindh will be robbed by making the Cholistan Canal. He said a telemetry system should be installed for monitoring the water flow, which has not been installed yet.