KARACHI, Dec 14: The Karachi Coordination Committee of the Pakistan People’s Party has made it clear that people would never allow General Musharraf to push ahead with his ‘agenda of disintegrating the country’ through pursuing divisive policies. The committee met at the Bilawal House on Wednesday with PPP Sindh chief Qaim Ali Shah in the chair. Information Secretary Taj Haider, MNA Nawab Yousuf Talpur, Prof N. D. Khan, Nafees Siddiqui and Shah Mohammad Shah also attended the meeting.
“General Musharraf has whipped up the dead issue of Kalabagh dam to harm the integrity and federation of Pakistan which is simply unacceptable to the whole nation,” the meeting noted while deliberating upon the general’s ‘highly provocative’ remarks viz-a-viz the Kalabagh dam issue.
The PPP committee was of the view that Gen Musharraf’s ann-ouncement of the controversial project had hit roots of the country as the project had already been rejected unanimously by three provincial assemblies, as well as by the Senate and its standing committee.
The meeting rejected the constitutional guarantees offered by Gen Musharraf, saying he had himself been violating the constitution, especially its Article 6.
It pointed out that the Chashma-Jhelum Link Canal and Taunsa-Punjnad Link Canal were flood canals and there were also constitutional guarantees attached to them. However, it said, both the canals had been converted into perennial ones. The 1991 Water Apportionment Accord is also backed by constitutional guarantees but Gen Musharraf’s regime was violating it since 1999.
The coordination committee noted that two million acre fertile lands of Thatta and Badin districts had already gone barren due to inadequate downstream flow of water from Kotri.
The party’s senior leaders told the meeting that low-cost alternatives did exist there and any democratically elected government could resolve the issue amicably.
The meeting announced that senators, MNAs, MPAs, leaders, activists and public would participate in the December 22 rally in Karachi to register their strong protest against Gen Musharraf’s ‘disintegration agenda’ of Kalabagh Dam.
The meeting was of the view that every dictator had pursued a policy of ‘divide and rule’ and by raising the Kalabagh dam issue, Gen Musharraf was doing just the same.
