ISLAMABAD, Aug 26: Assemblies are constitutional institutions and the people’s representatives cannot be dictated to change the resolutions that have been passed on crucial issues like Kalabagh Dam and Thal Canal.

This was stated by the Pakistan People’s Party information secretary, Taj Haider, in a statement issued here on Tuesday.

He said there were a few members who withstood all pressures and had been elected in spite of heavy rigging against them.

Mr Haider said General Musharraf was distorting facts when he asserted that Sindh was getting its share of water. Since the army take-over, they adopted the historical-use basis of water sharing instead of the 10 daily apportionment basis given in the water accord, he added.

He said it was being done in spite of the fact that the newly adopted pattern had been termed a constitutional violation by the law ministry and notified by Indus River System Authority (Irsa).

“We should stop calling the water flowing to the sea down stream of Kotri wastage of water.

“The escaping of 10MAF of water below Kotri is as valid a part of the water accord as the apportionments made for different provinces.

“The devastation caused to more than two million acres of rich agricultural lands of the coastal districts is a direct result of not allowing water to flow down stream of Kotri so many years,” Mr Haider said.

About what he termed the injustices meted out to Sindh, he said the province was denied its due requirement of water in the early Kharif on the pretext of starting the filling up of Mangla and Tarbella.

The minister of water and power has been publicly saying that snowfall this winter was 8 to 10 feet above normal, the river flows were higher, and the weather forecasts indicated rains and floods, he added.

He said the reservoirs were not emptied in March and April to be able to store the expected floods, because Wapda in violation of the water accord was operating the power plants to generate cheap electricity, and not as water storages to meet the water requirements of agriculture.

“When the floods came, there was no capacity left in the reservoirs and floods had to be released down stream. The fate of Sindh thus oscillates between heavy drought and heavy floods. It never gets its share of water when it needs,” he added.