HYDERABAD, Dec 26: The Sindh Qaumi Ittehad (SQI) has slammed the rulers’ senseless insistence on going ahead with the construction of Kalabagh dam and said the move was tantamount to a naked aggression against the three provinces and might lead to 1971-like situation.

The SQI’s planning committee at its meeting held at Taraqi Passand House on Sunday took exception of the statements of Gen Pervez Musharraf and his ministers that people would see Kalabagh Dam on ground by 2015.

The meeting recalled that the elected assemblies of three provinces had rejected the construction of Kalabagh Dam on more than one occasions and the four nations out of five - Sindhi, Baloch, Pakhtoon and Seraiki had also rejected the project.

People of Sindh had held thousands of protest demonstrations, rallies and general strikes against the dam during last 26 years, the meeting said claiming that no constitutional institution had approved the construction of Kalabagh Dam.

The meeting, which was presided over by noted scholar and intellectual Mohammad Ibrahim Joyo, demanded that the government should not thrust arbitrary decisions on smaller provinces and condemned Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervez Ellahi’s statements on Kalabagh.

The meeting strongly criticised the statement of Federal Minister Sher Afgan Niazi on Sindh's islands and demanded that he should tender an unconditional apology to Sindhis for such an insulting statement.

Referring to the statements of Federal Minister for Information Mohammad Ali Durrani about Biharis, the meeting warned that Sindhis’ would resist the move to settle Biharis in Sindh.

The meeting decided that Mohammad Ibrahim Joyo would meet with the central leadership of JSQM, JSM (Z) and JSM (J) to persuade them to attend SQI meetings regularly.

It decided that a meeting of SQI’s principal committee would be held, which would be attended by the heads of affiliated parties to deliberate on the resignation of SQI chairman Mumtaz Ali Bhutto.

Sindh Taraqi Passand Party Chairman Dr Qadir Magsi, Sindh National Front leaders Gul Mohammad Jakhrani and Mohammad Ayoub Shar, Dr Abdul Hameed Memon, Nazeer Ahmed Memon, Hote Khan Gadhi and Muzaffar Kalhoro attended the meeting.

JSQM: The Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz on Tuesday cautioned people against giving donations to any individual or group in the name of G. M. Syed’s birth anniversary and advised to call party’s media centre if anyone demanded donations.

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