KARACHI, Dec 5: The combined opposition in the Sindh Assembly on Monday submitted a requisition for the assembly session to deliberate upon the issue of water reservoirs, including the Kalabagh Dam. Signed by 43 MPAs, the requisition has been submitted under Article 54(3), read with Article 127 of the constitution “to discuss the so-called Kalabagh dam or any other dam/reservoir on River Indus detrimental and disastrous to the interest of the people of Sindh.”
The opposition has maintained that it wanted the provincial government to approach the federal government for immediately stopping consideration or announcement about constructing any dam or reservoir over River Indus.
The requisition also called for the constitution of the Council of Common Interests (CCI) under Article 153 of the constitution immediately.
Addressing a news conference after the Sindh Assembly session was prorogued, senior PPP leader Syed Qaim Ali Shah, thanked the MMA for taking a stand against the dam and showing solidarity with the people of Sindh.
Mr Shah said that he was trying to raise the issue again in the house on Monday as he had done on Friday but the treasury was not prepared to talk about the core issues affecting the people and interests of Sindh.
He recalled that when tried to speak on a point of order, he had not quoted any rule but had shown a copy of the constitution, which was supreme.
The PPP leader cited Articles 153, 154 and 155 of the 1973 constitution, and said he wanted to advise the provincial government to ask the federal government to constitute the CCI so that complaints regarding the issues of Kalabagh dam and Greater Thal Canal could be made. He regretted that the government did not pay any heed to his pleas although under the above-mentioned articles, there were certain mandatory responsibilities of the government.
He also referred to the reported contradiction in the statements of Gen Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, and said that the CCI was a constitutional body and setting up of technical, parliamentary and other committees on the issue were over and above the constitutional provisions. “Therefore, we don’t recognize them,” he declared.
He asked the government to make its stand on the dam issue public so that people could know whether the government was for or against the controversial project.
Makhdoom Jamiluz Zaman and Syed Murad Ali Shah of the PPP and Maulana Umar Sadiq, MMA’s parliamentary party leader, also gave reasons for their opposition to the Kalabagh dam.
Meanwhile, leader of the opposition in the assembly Nisar Khuhro, in a statement from London, has criticized Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz for inviting editors of Sindhi language newspapers and owners of Sindhi TV channels to discuss the issue of big dams. Mr Khuhro alleged that the move was aimed at pressuring them.
“Gen Musharraf appeared to be ‘rewarding’ the people of Sindh, for their active participation in the quake relief activities, by hatching the conspiracy to implement the anti-people and anti-Sindh water projects already rejected vehemently by a majority of them,” he remarked.
He was of the view that after rejection through unanimously adopted resolutions by three assemblies, there was no justification for committees and APCs to evolve a consensus on the issue, he argued.
He deplored that the provincial government had failed to get these resolutions implemented.
