DADU: Activists of Awami Tehreek organised a 10-kilometre foot march from Loung Mahesar village to Mehar town on Friday in protest against construction of so-called six strategic canals on Indus River and corporate farming projects.

AT’s central general secretary Advocate Sajid Hussain Mahesar, central legal adviser Advocate Najeebur Rehman Mahesar, central joint secretary Maah-i-Noor Mallah and others, who led the march, condemned the approval of the canals project and said that people of Sindh would never accept it.

They accused Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah of betraying Sindhis by endorsing the canals project in the same manner as he had accepted results of fraudulent digital census.

They criticised federal government for violating the Constitution by getting the canals clandestinely approved through the Council of Common Interests (CCI). During a meeting of the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Water Resources, Wapda Chairman General Sajjad Ghani disclosed that the CCI had approved the new canals with Murad Ali Shah’s support, they disclosed.

They denounced the move as unconstitutional, asserting that no institution, including the CCI, had the authority to deprive 70 million Sindhis of their water rights, and termed the projects as act of terrorism because the canals would destroy the Indus Delta.

They warned that corporate farming and canals projects posed an existential threat to Sindhi people, and accused Bilawal-Shehbaz coalition government of reviving the controversial Kalabagh Dam project, calling it a conspiracy against the country.

Published in Dawn, February 1st, 2025