MIRPURKHAS/ NAWAB-SHAH: A large number of activists of Awami Tehreek and Sindhyani Tehreek, including women and children, staged over a kilometer long foot march that culminated in a sit-in in Jhuddo town on Sunday in protest against corporate farming, construction of six new canals on Indus River, amendment to Irsa Act and water accord 1991.

Speaking to protesters, AT’s central information secretary Lal Jarwar, central leaders Advocate Mumtaz Khoso and Advocate Ayaz Kaloi, Sindhyani Tehreek leaders Zubeda Kaloi, Noor Bano Khoso and local leaders of the two parties said that millions of acres of Sindh’s land was being parceled out to private companies and foreign investors in the name of corporate farming.

They said the corporate farming was an attempt to hand over the country entirely to global imperial forces, depriving Sindhi people of their land and the Indus River, effectively rendering them stateless in their own homeland, like Palestinians.

They said the plan to build six new canals on the Indus through amendments to the Irsa Act was a death warrant for the people of Sindh. The federal government wanted to forcibly occupy the Indus to benefit Punjab, they said.

They vowed that Sindhis would continue their struggle against all the plans that sought to enslave them. Occupation of the Indus and Sindh’s lands was unacceptable and consequences of pushing Sindh against the wall would be disastrous, they warned.

They demanded immediate cancellation of all corporate farming projects and canals project, and said Pakistan Peoples Party leadership handed over all authority to Punjab by allowing amendment to the Irsa Act, and thus betraying people of Sindh.

STP threatens march on capital

Sindh Taraqqi-pasand Party chairman Dr Qadir Magsi has lashed out at Pakistan Peoples Party for its ‘failure’ to get a resolution passed by Sindh Assembly against federal government’s plans for the construction of six canals on the Indus River despite the party’s verbal opposition to the project before public.

If the canals’ project was not shelved, Sindh would march on Islamabad, Dr Magsi warned at a gathering of party workers and supporters here on Saturday.

He said that Sindh had been braving conspiracies against its existence since the creation of Pakistan and resurrection of the demand for new province at critical junctures was one of them.

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement, which had tabled a bill for the new province in Sindh Assembly, revived the issue whenever prime minister or Chief of Army Staff visited the province, he said.

He said that under prolonged PPP rule in Sindh people had become hopeless and jobless youth were committing suicide. Corruption had eaten hollow all government departments, especially the departments of local government, irrigation and revenue, while PPP leaders were busy favouring their own people and helping themselves to amassing personal wealth by looting public exchequer, he said.

Published in Dawn, January 20th, 2025