KARACHI: Thal canal project violative of constitution: PPP
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, March 13: The Pakistan Peoples Party’s senior vice- chairman, Syed Qaim Ali Shah, has urged President Gen Pervez Musharraf to reject the Thal Canal project immediately in the interest of the country.
He said that not only the decision taken by the ECNEC was a violation of the Article 155 of the 1973 constitution, but the circumstances facing the country too did not allow confrontations of that sort.
Addressing a press conference on Wednesday at his residence, Mr Shah termed the ECNEC decision one-sided and said that the country was being run by the PCO but the Supreme Court had directed the government to run, as far as possible, the affairs of the country under the 1973 constitution.
He pointed out that regarding water and power it was specifically mentioned in the constitution that any decision would be taken with the consultation of the provinces and by the Council of Common Interest (CCI). He added that so far no decision had been taken by the CCI as it did not exist. He said that he had been informed that the work on the Thal project had started even before the ECNEC decision.
He said that instead of rejecting the ECNEC decision and leaving the issue to the elected institutions, the president had announced Rs2 billion for improving the existing old system of channels, but this amount was not more than peanuts as even Rs10 billion would not be enough.
He recalled that when he was a senior minister in 1973-74 Rs5 billion had been apportioned for strengthening the embankments of the River Indus and Rs570 million had been sanctioned for one year by the federal government for that purpose.
He maintained that now even Rs10 billion were not sufficient as the system had been neglected for decades and the irrigation canal of the Sukkur Barrage had dried up due to drought.
Referring to the rejection of the project by the people of Sindh and the consequent protests, he asked if the country could afford such protests with the armed forces deployed on the borders, Afghanistan issue still very much alive, deteriorating economic conditions, the nation divided socially and the law and order problem due to sectarian disputes. The PPP leader questioned the wisdom of pitting one province against the other when the country is faced with drought.
In reply to a question Syed Qaim Ali Shah said that so far the matter had not come up for deliberation by the central committee of the party nor any decision had been taken by the Punjab wing.
Regarding the meeting of a PPP delegation with Mari Robertson of the Human Rights Organisation visiting Pakistan, he said the PPP team had discussed the human rights situation in the country with specific reference to the Asif Ali Zardari case.
He said that she had also asked for suggestions regarding the coming elections and a 10-point proposal had been submitted to her which included elections under the 1973 constitution by a fully independent election commission and monitoring of the elections by the observers of the UN and the Human Rights Organisation.
RALLY: The PPP has finalized the program of rally against the construction of the proposed Greater Thal Canal, from Karachi to Sukkur on Thursday 14th March.
A member of the Sindh council of the PPP revealed that all the arrangements had been completed for the rally.
