January 22, 2006	Sunday	Zilhaj 21, 1426

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HYDERABAD, Jan 21: The Anti-Greater Thal Canal and Kalabagh Dam Action Committee has reiterated that the people of Sindh will not accept construction of any dam, including Kalabagh, on the River Indus.

Speaking at a news conference at a hotel here on Friday, PPP’s Sindh Council member and action committee leader Syed Shah Mohammad Shah said the action committee would continue its struggle against dams on the Indus and added that a new strategy was being evolved in furtherance of this objective.

He said that by postponing construction of the Kalabagh dam, President Gen Pervez Musharraf had tried to weaken the action committee but the struggle would continue with the same vigour.

He said the huge Jan 18 rally in Hyderabad had shown that construction of dams on the Indus was not acceptable to people.

He said that when the Council of Common Interests had been revived, a single person had no authority to announce construction of any dam.

He said Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief Altaf Hussain had declared that if the army operation in Balochistan was not stopped and the Kalabagh project was not abandoned, his party would quit the government. He reminded Mr Hussain that both his demands had been rejected by the government as the Balochistan operation was going on and the president and his ministers had made it clear that the Kalabagh dam had not been abandoned. He said the MQM chief should now announce his next step.

Mr Shah alleged that to crush the anti-Kalabagh dam movement, a case had been registered against workers of affiliated parties of the action committee. Such pressure tactics could not stem the tide of the protest, he added.

He demanded that the NFC award should be announced on the basis of revenue generation and not on the basis of population.

Meanwhile, the People’s Engineers Forum, Doctors Forum and the People’s Lawyers Forum condemned registration of what they called a false case against workers of component parties of the anti-dam committee.

In a joint statement issued here on Friday, provincial Engineers Forum president Zahid Hussain Lashari, its leaders Sikandar Hayat and Ali Hassan, provincial Doctors Forum president Dr Karim Khwaja and Lawyers Forum leaders Allah Bachayo Soomro and Chaudhry Bashir Ahmad claimed that a false case of rioting and issuing threats had been registered against PPP’s Sindh Council members Aftab Ahmad Khanzada and Mohammad Usman Kennedy, Union Council Nazim and Sindh Taraqqi Pasand leader Mehboob Abro and 20 other activists. They termed the case political victimization.

They demanded appointment of an impartial commission for holding fair and impartial general election.

They further demanded that cases against Benazir Bhutto, Mohammad Nawaz Sharif, Javed Hashmi, Yousuf Raza Gilani and other political leaders should be withdrawn and Ms Bhutto and Mr Sharif allowed to return to the country.