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HYDERABAD, June 22: A motorcade, carrying leaders and workers of the Anti-Thal Canal Action Committee (ATCAC), left here on Sunday for Umerkot to mark the beginning of the second phase of its campaign against the Thal canal.
The motorcade was aimed at creating awareness among the people about imminent negative repercussions of the canal on agriculture sector and overall economy of Sindh.
Earlier, ATCAC chief and leader of opposition in Sindh Assembly Nisar Khuhro, Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal MNA Maulana Asadullah Bhutto, People’s Party Parliamentarians MPAs Qaim Ali Shah and Sassui Palijo and several other leaders of the action committee gathered at the house of MPA Syed Ali Nawaz Shah in Qasimabad to discussed their strategy.
Talking to journalists before leaving for Umerkot, Sindh Water Committee president Rasool Bux Palijo said that struggle against the disputed canal project was a long one, as a part of which, the ATCAC leaders would speak to people on their way to Umerkot, Mirpurkhas district.
Provincial secretary-general of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (F) Maulana Khalid Mehmood Soomro said that those, who were calling the Sindhi leaders agents of Hindus, were themselves enemies of Pakistan. He deplored that the same language was being used today which was used in 1971, leading to the separation of East Pakistan.
Sindh National Front leader Gul Mohammad Jakhrani said that Sindh was being converted into a desert to irrigate the lands of armymen.
Sindh Abadgar Board chief Abdul Majeed Nizamani said that Thal canal was not a part of 1991 Water Accord. He wondered that when the Kalabagh dam project, on which Rs2 billion had been spent, could be shelved due to opposition from Sindh why the Thal canal project could not be shelved, on which much less amount had been spent.
JSQM: Meanwhile, activists of the Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz and its students wing here on Sunday took out a procession from Chandia Goth to Naseem Nagar, Qasimabad, where they observed a token hunger strike.
They were protesting against the construction of greater Thal canal.
Led by a JSQM leader, Akash Mallah, the protesters raised slogans against the controversial canal project.
The protest was aimed at motivating the people to join the party’s sit-in on the canal issue in Karachi on June 25.
MIRPURKHAS: Later, speaking at a rally near the Jamrao canal bridge on the Umerkot road, after arriving with the anti-Thal canal action committee’s motorcade, Mr Khuhro stressed the need for the people’s participation in the protest campaign, saying that the project would destroy fertile lands in Sindh.
Criticizing the Muttahidda Qaumi Movement for not protesting in the Parliament when funds were being allocated for the Thal Canal, the PPP leader said that water was necessary for the people.
Deploring the present government’s attitude, he accused the government of apathy towards the problem of unfair water distribution, he said that nothing had been done while the Sindh Assembly had duly taken up the matter.
MNA Yusuf Talpur said that an area of about 1.1 million acres in the Mirpurkhas district had been rendered barren because of its being located at the tail-end.
MNA Pir Aftab Hussain Shah Jilani and others also spoke on the occasion.
