DADU/MIRPURKHAS/SUKKUR: Activists of Awami Porhiyat Tehreek and PPP-SB staged marches, farmers took out a procession while AT and JI leaders held pressers on Sunday to join chorus of protests against construction of six new canals on Indus River.

The Tehreek’s President G.N. Khoso and other leaders, who led the protest, said in their speeches in Wahi Pandhi town where the march culminated that the six canals project was a deep conspiracy against Sindh and its people.

They held Pakistan Peoples Party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari responsible for the project and warned that over 50 million Sindhis would not allow any attempt to deprive them of their water resources.

“On the one hand, inept rulers are busy building their personal empires and on the other hand, Sindh’s land is being handed out to outsiders while Sindhis are being treated as a minority,” they said.

JI sees the project as grave threat to Sindh

Kashif Saeed Sheikh, emir of Jamaat-i-Islami’s Sindh chapter, said at a press conference at National Press Club in Mehar that six canals project was a grave threat to the future of Sindh.

He stressed that the Indus River was lifeline of Sindh’s agriculture and warned that if the people of Sindh did not rise for their rights, the province’s history, civilisation and agriculture would be destroyed.

He held President Asif Ali Zardari responsible for the approval of several projects which were detrimental to Sindh’s interests, including the Greater Thar Canal, and six canals on the Indus.

Farmers take to streets in Mirpurkhas

A large number of farmers and landowners took out a procession from railway station roundabout to local press club in protest against “conspiracy” to deprive Sindh of its just share in water through the construction of six new canals on the Indus.

Landowners, Faisal Kachchelo, Ali Hassan Chandio, Ramchand and Wajid Leghari led the procession as it marched on main roads before reaching the press club where the participants in the procession staged a sit-in.

The protesters’ leaders urged PPP leaders to ensure the federal government withdrew the highly pernicious canals project and warned if the government went ahead with the plan despite their protests, farmers and landowners together with entire Sindh would offer a stiff resistance.

They deplored that Sindhis had voted PPP to power for the protection of their rights and agriculture but the party had stabbed them in the back and sold the province’s water share to Punjab.

AT condemns canals project

Awami Tehreek president Advocate Vasand Thari, flanked by key party leaders, told a press conference at Sukkur press club on Sunday that their sister organisation, Sindhiyani Tehreek, was staging “Save Sindh Peaceful March” on Dec 22 in Sukkur to mobilise people to protect their rights, resources and dignity.

The leaders highlighted the urgency of addressing critical issues affecting Sindh negatively and condemned “illegal” construction of six canals on the Indus River, which posed a grave threat to Sindh’s agriculture sector and hence very survival.

PPP-SB stages sit-in

Activists of Pakistan Peoples Party-Shaheed Bhutto (PPP-SB) took out a procession and staged a sit-in at Jacobabad press club on Sunday to record protest against the construction of canals on the Indus.

The protesters’ leaders said that the province’s agriculture was solely dependent on the river, if the federal government went ahead with the canals project, it would render the entire Sindh barren.

They demanded that the government shelve the project immediately, otherwise the party would widen its protest drive.

Published in Dawn, December 16th, 2024