HYDERABAD, April 21: A central leader of the Sindh National Council (SNC), Hussain Bukhsh Thebo, has said that thousands of small dams were being built in America, India, China and other countries but in Pakistan only mega projects of dams were being planned just to extract commissions.

He was speaking at a seminar organized by the SNC at the Sindhi Language Authority hall here on Saturday.

He accused Wapda of creating hatred between the people of the country by giving wrong facts and figures on water and alleged that Wapda had become the most notorious government organization of the country.

He said the poor people were struggling to save Pakistan but the capitalists were trying to destroy the country.

Strongly opposing the construction of Thal canal, Mr Thebo said that it was aimed at destroying the agrarian economy of Sindh.

Speaking on the occasion, another leader of the SNC, Dr Rahim Solangi said that Sindh was in the grip of many crisis, including the acute shortage of water, due to which the political and social fabric of the province was in danger.

He said that the very survival of Sindh was dependent on Indus River but Punjab had always been committing theft of the waters of the river.

He said that even in the international agreements signed by Pakistan, the interests of Sindh had been ignored.

Dr Solangi said that people from all walks of life, including political workers, experts and growers, had raised their voice against the theft of Indus water but the rulers had paid no heed to these protests.

He feared that such an attitude could prove very dangerous for the country.

Sindh National Party chairman Dr Dodo Mehri deplored the attitude of the rulers who were ignoring the opinion of the people of Sindh on dams and canals.

He said that in the garb of the referendum, President Gen Pervez Musharraf wanted to thrust the agenda of Punjab on Sindh.

Meanwhile, the president of the Sindh Water Committee and chief of the Awami Tehrik, Rasool Bux Palijo, has appealed to the people of Sindh to observe a token hunger strike on April 23.

In a statement issued here, he said that the Irsa had convened a meeting at Islamabad on April 24 to decide the issue of the greater Thal canal and added that on this occasion, it was necessary to send a message to the rulers and the world community that the people of Sindh were against the construction of the canal.