HYDERABAD, Aug 22: Sindh Tarraqi Pasand Party chairman and Anti-Greater Thal Canal Action Committee member Dr Qadir Magsi has demanded that President Gen Pervez Musharraf should shelve controversial greater Thal canal and Kalabagh dam projects.

In a statement issued here on Friday, he criticized the president for mobilizing public opinion in favour of the water projects despite reservations of Sindh. He said the president was safeguarding the interests of only one province.

He said the Sindh Assembly had rejected the Thal canal project two times and the Kalabagh dam project three times in its resolutions.

Dr Magsi said the people of Sindh were facing miseries as their crops were destroyed and their houses collapsed in rains and consequent floods. But instead of rehabilitating the affected people, he added, the president supported construction of the water projects which would lead to water shortage in Sindh and render its land barren.

He said President Musharraf and Prime Minister Mir Zafrullah Khan Jamali should have paid exhaustive visits to rain-affected areas to know the situation.

Rather, he said, the president was visiting Sindh to muster support for the projects. He said the people of the province had been hearing arguments in support of the two projects by the rulers and their so-called experts.