MITHI: Qaumi Awami Tehreek chief Ayaz Latif Palijo has deplored that despite another stay order issued by Sindh High Court local influential persons and contractors of small dam project continue to extract granite from Karoonjhar Hills and several other points in Parkar region.

Palijo said while speaking at the “Save Karoonjhar Conference” organised by his party here on Thursday that extraction of both granite and gravel from all 108 points of the hills be stopped immediately and all the persons involved in the illegal activities be sent behind bars”.

He said that Pakistan Peoples Party had always sold out natural resources and assets whenever they had come to power and warned them to stop daydreaming about auctioning off precious granite of Karoonjhar. People would strongly resist any move to damage the historical and heritage sites, including Karoonjhar, he said.

He announced stepping up the “Save Karoonjhar” drive from Friday with party workers taking out processions and holding rallies in all big and small towns of the province. “The PPP ministers and lawmakers are only interested in amassing money by hook or by crook,” he said and held them responsible for creating uncertainty among peoples’ minds about the future of the picturesque Kar-oonjhar.

He expressed deep concern over increasing cases of suicide in the desert district and said that abject poverty, sexual harassment of women and police incompetence were among prime factors, which were forcing Tharis to take their own lives.

He lashed out at executives of coal mining companies working in Tharparkar for callous attitude towards the desert region and accused corrupt functionaries of the Sindh government of selling Tharis’ poverty to the world to amass money in their name. The rulers had already embezzled billions of rupees which were released for the provision of safe drinking water to Thari people through reverse osmosis plants, he said.

He pointed out that the costly plants had stopped functioning after developing faults in the entire desert region for the past many years, forcing people to drink highly contaminated and poisonous water of wells.

Palijo said that PPP rulers had reduced Sindh to ruins by massive corruption during 15 years of misrule. The corrupt and greedy rulers were busy in looting the resources of Sindh and leasing out its lands to builders with impunity.

JUI-F warns of long march

Leaders of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl have warned of staging a long march towards Chief Minister House if the Sindh government do not cancel all leases for granite extraction from Karoonjhar Hills.

The party’s provincial secretary general Rashid Mehmood Soomro said at a gathering of party workers at the foothills of Karoonjhar that they would foil all attempts being made by greedy elements to auction off the Hills.

He demanded that all leases issued by successive governments since 1980s be cancelled immediately and all those who were still engaged in granite extraction in the region be taken to task in the light of fresh orders of Sindh High Court, Hyderabad circuit bench.

He deplored that some influential people associated with ruling PPP were themselves involved in damaging the site.

Published in Dawn, August 4th, 2023