THATTA, June 5: A seminar was held on the occasion of world environmental day, titled, ‘Case of River Indus and Sindh government,’ organized by Wahdat, a joint forum of various NGOs here on Thursday.

The seminar was presided over by PPP MPA Sassui Palijo.

Besides speaking on the topic, she spoke at length on the recent Keenjhar Lake tragedy. She elucidated that by setting up an inquiry committee no justice could be provided because the committee comprised the DCO, Thatta; the DPO, Thatta; and the superintendent engineer, irrigation, as its members, who are a party to the tragedy and have vested interests and would put the responsibility on some poor boatman.

She said an impartial judicial inquiry was the only way to ensure justice with the departed souls and their families.

She said ethically the provincial minister concerned should have tendered his resignation realizing the criminal negligence of whosoever was under his administrative control instead of claiming that the incident was a natural catastrophe.

The speakers at the seminar were of the opinion that if the authorities still did not realize the gravity of the water crisis in Sindh, and particularly in the tail-end district, the fertile lands of Thatta and Badin districts, which had already been inundated to the extent of over 1.2 million acres, would be completely destroyed.

They said that no future government, if the situation was ignored, would be capable to reactivate life at the Indus Delta, which has so far sustained irreparable losses.

The others who spoke at the seminar included Noor Mohammad Bajeer of the SPO, Nasir Panhwar of the IUCN, Zulfiqar Bhatti (a columnist), Aarab Mallah, Qadir Ranto, Mustafa Zaur and Ghulam Nabi Zaur.

TELEGRAPHIC OFFICE: Telegraphic communication has been suspended in Thatta district since the last three years as the only telex machine is lying out of order.