September 3, 2003	Wednesday	Rajab 5, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, Sept 2: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement still opposes the construction of the Thal canal and it will raise the issue in the ongoing session of the National Assembly, says MNA Dr Farooq Sattar.

Asserting the party’s resolve here on Tuesday, Dr Farooq Sattar told this correspondent the party had already submitted a resolution with the National Assembly’s secretariat, adding the MQM was also considering to bring a call-attention notice.

“One thing is sure, the MQM will bring the issue for discussion in the current NA session,” he said.

He declined to comment on reports suggesting that the MQM had intentionally deferred the matter of raising the issue in the National Assembly after Gen Pervez Musharraf’s visit to Sindh, where he had cautioned the project’s opponents.

Reiterating the MQM’s stand on the greater Thal canal project, he said work on the project should be stopped immediately.

Sources said that the MQM had wanted to move a resolution against the construction of the canal but it was unable to do so after it failure to muster the support of other parties in this regard.

Five MQM senators — Babar Khan Ghouri, Prof Saeed Siddiqui, Allama Abbas Kumaili, Nighat Mirza and Abida Saif — on June 17 had announced their intention to move a resolution against the water project in the Senate. Similarly, Dr Farooq Sattar and Kunwar Khalid Yunus had announced to move a similar resolution in the National Assembly. The two MNAs had termed it an “extremely sensitive issue,” urging political parties, particularly the People’s Party Parliamentarians and the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, to demonstrate their solidarity with the people of Sindh by getting this resolution passed unanimously.

They said the PPP and the MMA had been opposing the project in Sindh for the past many months and it was expected that they would take a similar stand in this connection.

Despite the opposition to the project, both the PPP and the MMA had declined to support the MQM’s move, accusing it (the MQM) of adopted duplicitous attitude in this regard. They said that while the MQM was part of the coalition government yet it was seeking the support of the opposition parties against the government.

MMA’s parliamentary leader in the National Assembly Qazi Hussain Ahmed had gone as far as asking the MQM to quit the government and join the opposition’s fold, if it felt that the government was not listening to them.

The PPP had termed the MQM’s position on the issue “political gimmickry and point-scoring.”