HYDERABAD: Sindh Taraqqi-pasand Party (STP) chairman Dr Qadir Magsi has said that his party will stage a series of sit-ins across Sindh in protest against the federal government’s plans to build new canals in Punjab over the Indus River, and against proposed amendments to Indus River System Authority (Irsa) Act, 1992.

Magsi said at a news conference after chairing a meeting of his party’s central executive committee at his residence on Saturday that STP did not accept construction of any dam or canal over the Indus.

He said the first sit-in of the series would be staged at Babarloi Bypass on Oct 30, followed by another in Sakrand on Nov 9 and the third in Karachi at Fawwara Chowk on Nov 24. Afterwards, the central committee would meet again on Nov 25 to decide future strategy of the protest drive, he said.

He said that STP would also observe Yaum e shuhada in Karachi on Nov 3 and death anniversary of Altaf Jaskani in Tando Allahyar on Nov 18. The party would use these occasions to create awareness among Sindhi masses on water issue, he said.

He said that his party’s struggle would continue till the projects were shelved. The prime minister did not have any right to get Cholistan Canal project approved by the Central Development Working Party, nor could Punjab government justify its allocation of Rs250bn for this project, he said.

Magsi said that the premier’s move was tantamount to mass murder of Sindhis and they would hence wage a fierce battle for their very existence. Punjab and other provinces were so keen to have a share out of Sindh’s resources but were not ready to share theirs, he regretted.

He said that size of Punjab’s groundwater was assessed at 40MAF wher­eas the Indus River had 101MAF only in peculiar conditions. Punjab receiv­ed more than its share from the Indus but it was not ready to share its groundwater with Sindh, he said.

He demanded that Sindh should be given its share out of Punjab’s groundwater. Flows of 12MAF should be released downstream Kotri annually and 2500 cusecs daily because in the absence of these flows level of seawater intrusion increased, he said.

He said that before Shehbaz Sharif, Gen Pervez Musharraf and Wapda chairman Lt. Gen. Zulfikar Ali Khan had also planned to build Kalabagh dam and visited Sindh to convince people, Nawaz Sharif had also talked about Kalabagh immediately after testing nuclear weapon but they all faced stiff resistance from Sindh, he recalled.

Magsi regretted that Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari only talked about constitutional amendment at his party’s public meeting in Hyderabad though it was clearly not a masses’ issue. Sindh Assembly had already passed a resolution against the canals project and Irsa amendments and PPP chairman should at least have shown some modicum of respect for the decision of the assembly dominated by his own party, he said.

He said that if the resolutions were tabled without Bilawal’s consent then either he should expel movers of the resolutions or the assembly members should sack their leader.

Published in Dawn, October 20th, 2024