SUKKUR: The Awami Tehreek leaders have accused Pakistan Peoples Party of issuing empty statements against six canals project for the consumption of general public while practically supporting the construction of the controversial channels on Indus River.

The party’s central senior vice president Noor Ahmed Katiar and other leaders said at a meeting of AT Jacobabad chapter in Jacobabad on Monday that PPP had bargained away the Indus River and Sindh’s lands for the sake of power.

Mr Katiar said that work on the Cholistan Canal was going on and the Kachhi Canal had been inaugurated but the Sindh government was still unwilling to sincerely oppose the projects through all available constitutional forums.

He accused the PPP of compromising Sindh’s interests for power and said that Bilawal-Shehbaz coalition government was selling off the Indus River like Gen Ayub who had sold three rivers to India to the detriment of Pakistan’s interests.

He alleged that the federal government was amending the Irsa Act to sell the Indus water to foreign companies under the guise of corporate farming, which would devastate national economy.

Mr Katiar said that people of Sindh were held hostage by dacoits who were allegedly involved in occupation of land and natural resources as well. These dacoits were allegedly receiving protection from some people in government, leaving citizens insecure, he said.

He said that both the federal and provincial governments had failed to fulfill their constitutional duty to protect lives and property of citizens. The federal government exploited Sindh’s resources but had done nothing to establish peace and security in the province, he said.

Instead of taking action against dacoits, the police were involved in extrajudicial killings of innocent civilians in staged encounters, he said.

The party leaders demanded judicial inquiry into the murder of Ali Raza Zangejo and a transparent investigation of all police encounters, accusing police of frequently killing innocent persons and protecting actual criminals.

Sindh Hari Tehreek’s central president Comrade Ghulam Mustafa, who participated in the meeting as a special guest, said that corporate farming projects were aimed at destroying economy.

Meanwhile, the meeting decided to participate in large numbers in a rally to be held by the party in Sukkur on Dec 22 against river encroachments, land grabbing in Sindh, amendments to the Irsa Act to create six new canals, exploitation of resources and dacoits’ rule.

Published in Dawn, December 10th, 2024