SUKKUR: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that they have submitted an application calling for a meeting of the Council of Common Interests on the canals issue but even if the huddle is not convened, they [PPP] are satisfied that no work is being done on the controversial project.

He admitted to failure in countering effectively the ‘propaganda’ being spread against the Pakistan Peoples Party with regard to the canals while those disseminating the propaganda had already influenced peoples’ minds.

The chief minister was speaking to media persons at the residence of Lala Asad Pathan, central leader of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists here on Friday before leaving for Garhi Khuda Bakhsh Bhutto.

He advised media to exercise caution in covering national issues as people considered whatever was fed to them by media to be true. According to the constitution, no water project could be built without consensus among provinces, he said.

He said the President had neither approved any water project nor signed any summary in this regard but the propaganda was being spread regarding minutes of the meeting held in July. Not a single rupee out of Rs218 billion had been spent on the canals project, he assured.

He said that the Punjab government’s proposal for the Rs218bn canals project had not been placed before the CCI as required by Article 155 of the Constitution. Hence, no water project could be built without consensus among provinces in CCI, he said.

He said the President had clearly stated in his address to joint session of the parliament that he could not support the canals project. Besides, the President did not have any authority to stop any project, he said.

The chief minister criticised the Indus River System Authority for issuing a ‘misleading’ water availability certificate on Jan 17, 2024. “This certificate was incorrect and irresponsible and the PPP has challenged it to protect Sindh’s water rights,” he explained.

He said that they had submitted an application with the support of Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa calling for a meeting of the CCI on the canals issue.

However, even if the meeting was not convened, they [PPP] were satisfied that work was not being done on the controversial project, he said.

The chief minister was accompanied by provincial minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah, Sindh government’s spokesperson and Sukkur Mayor Arsalan Islam Sheikh, MNA Nouman Islam Sheikh and Sukkur District Council chairman Syed Kumail Haider Shah.

CM admits to delay in arrest of journalist’s killers

The chief minister admitted to delay on government’s part in the arrest and conviction of suspected killers of journalist Jan Muhammad Mahar but assured the government had not backed down on the issue.

He said there were several reasons for the delay and journalists were well aware of them. He would, however, soon issue special instructions to police officers to step up efforts to arrest the journalist’s murderers, he said.

Earlier, the PFUJ leader told the chief minister that the journalist community wanted to see exemplary punishment being awarded to Mahar’s killers.

Published in Dawn, April 5th, 2025