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| June 18, 2003 | Wednesday | Rabi-us-Sani 17, 1424 |
Muttahida backs Jeay Sindh call: Anti-Thal canal campaign
ISLAMABAD, June 17: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement has announced its support for Jeay Sindh call for a sit-in against the construction of the Greater Thal Canal.
This was stated by five MQM senators, Babar Khan Ghouri, Prof Saeed Siddiqui, Allama Abbas Kumaili, Nighat Mirza and Abida Saif, while speaking at a news conference here on Tuesday.
Mr Ghouri said the party had decided to participate in the protest sit-in to be staged by Jeay Sindh in Karachi on June 25.
He said despite the fact that the MQM was a coalition partner in the government, it would support any step against the construction of this controversial canal.
The MQM senator said the party had been opposing this project for the past several years. He hinted that the party might part ways with the Jamali government if it did not pay any heed to its demand. “If the government does not stop work on the project then the matter will be discussed at the party’s Rabita Committee and we will review our decision whether to stay in the government or not,” Mr Ghouri said.
He demanded of the government to call a roundtable conference on the issue in which representatives of all political parties of Sindh should be invited. He said if the government believed the project was beneficial for the people of Sindh and the country then it should convince all those who were opposing it.
He regretted that the government did not stop work on the project and announced allocation for it in the budget despite the fact that the Sindh Assembly had already passed a unanimous resolution against the implementation of the project on Feb 28, this year.
He said the MQM delegation had held talks with acting president Mohammadmian Soomro in the morning to apprise him of their reservations regarding the implementation of the Greater Thal Canal project.
When asked why did they not raise the issue with President Gen Pervez Musharraf, the MQM senator said actually they had been trying to meet Gen Musharraf but got time only after his departure for the UK.
Mr Ghouri said he had raised the issue in the Upper House through a calling attention notice. Besides this, he said, a motion under Article 194 had also been submitted to the Senate to initiate a debate on the issue in the next session.
Giving an example of East Pakistan tragedy, he said whenever smaller provinces were neglected and denied their rights, the country had to suffer.
Replying to a question why did the MQM not oppose this project when the finance minister was announcing the allocation for the project in his budget speech in the National Assembly, he said the party had been in touch with the government for the past many months on the issue and they had been given assurances that no step would be taken against the interests of the people of Sindh.
He, however, said the MQM would not allow People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) to play Sindh card on the issue. He said the project was actually a brainchild of the PPP government and it was initiated when Ghulam Mustafa Khar was the minister for water and power.
He made it clear that the MQM did not want to destabilise the government and would not allow any opposition party to exploit the situation. He expressed the hope that Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali would look into the matter and take practical steps to resolve it.
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