January 24, 2006	Tuesday	Zilhaj 23, 1426

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window).

LARKANA, Jan 23: The Larkana District Council at its first meeting held on Monday unanimously adopted a resolution against construction of Kalabagh and other dams on the Indus river.

Convener Munwar Ali Abro presided over the meeting.

Tabling the resolution, Baddaruddain Abbasi said construction of the Kalabagh dam would turn Sindh’s lands barren and affect its ecological system.

Calling the Indus the lifeline of Sindh, he claimed that from technical and economic point of view, construction of dams on the river was not feasible.

He reminded that three provincial assemblies had rejected the Kalabagh project. Also, he added, in terms of water availability, it was not feasible to build the dam.

Khair Mohammad Shaikh, Mashooq Jatoi, Fayyaz Bhutto, Iqbal Soomro, Apa Khurshid Talat Khatyan, Baboo Sarwar Siyal, Ali Gohar Bhatti, Nisar Bhutto, Iqbal Khatoon Tunio and others said that no dam on the Indus, including Bhasha and Munda, was acceptable to the people of Sindh.

They said that those praising President Gen Pervez Musharraf for announcing construction of Bhasha and Munda dams should keep it in mind that he had not shelved the Kalabagh project.

When Baboo Sarwar Siyal stood up to appreciate Gen Musharraf’s announcement, he faced tough opposition from the other council members. Pro-PPP members also protested against Mr Siyal for his remarks about Benazir Bhutto.

The convener did not allow Mr Siyal to continue.

Earlier, deferring seven points of the agenda, the convener appointed four members on a panel of presiding officers of the council. They were Badaruddain Abbasi, Baboo Sarwar Siyal, Abdul Qadir Sangi and Kulsoom Soomro.

BAR: The District Bar Association in a resolution on Monday appealed to the United Nations, OIC, the World Bank and other funding agencies not to finance the Kalabagh dam.

MPA Ayaz Soomro, who is also the president of the District Bar Associations, presided over the bar’s meeting.

DBA general secretary Abdul Hamid Bhurgri said the bar opposed construction of the Kalabagh dam and termed it a destroyer of the country’s unity.

Bar members said there was no democracy in the country and it was proved the way Gen Musharraf had rejected resolutions passed by the three provincial assemblies against construction of the Kalabagh dam.

They feared that such dams would ruin the entire province and convert it into a desert.

The meeting condemned killing of innocent people in Balochistan and called to stop the military ‘operation’.

The bar through another resolution condemned bombing in the Bajaur agency by American forces.

It criticized distribution of funds under the National Finance Commission award on the population basis.

Instead of distributing the award on revenue generating basis, the government had opted to distribute it on population basis, the resolution said.

The lawyers’ community boycotted court proceedings and took out a procession against the Kalabagh dam and killings in Balochistan and Bajaur Agency.

MPA Ayaz Soomro led the procession that emerged from the DBA office.

Carrying banners, placards and wearing black armbands the protesters marched on various roads of the city and staged a sit-in at the Pakistan chowk.

Ayaz Soomro, Hamid Bhurgri, Ahmed Ali Soomro, Kalpana Devi and Ashique Dhmaraho urged the government to shelve the plan of constructing the controversial water reservoir for ever.

They opposed distribution of the National Finance Commission (NFC) award on population basis.

The lawyers called to stop the ‘operation’ in Balochistan and condemned bombardment on the Bajaur Agency by Americans.

A black flag was hoisted on the office of DBA.