KARACHI, June 13: The co-ordination committee of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement has asked the president and the prime minister to stop work on the greater Thal canal project until reservations of the people of Sindh were not addressed.
In a statment, the coordination committee reminded them that people of Sindh had serious reservations on the project, as they had a strong feeling that water supply to the province would be dangerously curtailed with the completion of this project.
It maintained that the MQM opposed the project, because the party felt that this project would turn Sindh into a barren land.
The committee emphasised that in view of the international and domestic compulsions, it was necessary to have unity within. It urged the president and prime minister to stop work on this controversial project. Instead of going ahead unilaterally with it, people and their representative political parties should be engaged in a dialogue for evolving a national consensus, it added.
SNF DEMO: The Sindh National Front (SNF) organized a protest demonstration on Friday, in front of the Karachi Press Club (KPC), to register its resentment against construction of greater Thal canal and acute water shortage faced by Sindh, adds PPI.
The demonstration was led by SNF general secretary Gul Mohammad Jakhrani, while members of the central committee, including Mr Khushnood, Latif Rawlani and Anwer Memon, also participated in the protest.
Demonstrators were carrying placards, inscribed with slogans against construction of Thal canal, and highlighting water problem of Sindh.
Mr Jakhrani, speaking to the protesters, slammed silence of Sindh rulers over construction of the canal, which he termed a conspiracy against the province and its people.
“The province is already facing, since long, extreme scarcity of water and after construction of Thal canal, a famine like situation would prevail which would play havoc with its economy and livelihood of its inhabitants,” he said.
He demanded of the federal government to abandon construction of the controversial canal, otherwise, he said, it would have to face grave consequences for ignoring popular demand of the people of the province, who would go to any extent for its acceptance.
