HYDERABAD: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) held a public meeting on Sunday in Tandojam where it’s women wing president MPA Faryal Talpur declared in clear terms that the proposed six strategic canals project is unacceptable to Sindh.

“PPP will not allow [the federal authorities] to draw the new canals from Indus because the project will convert Sindh into another Karbala,” she remarked.

She warned that if such issues kept cropping up, then the entire Sindh would rise.

The public meeting was held at the residence of Senior Sindh Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon, who as well as some other party leaders including Sindh PPP President Nisar Ahmed Khuhro and Irrigation Minister Jam Khan Shoro also addressed the participants.

PPP’s Sindh Information Secretary Aajiz Dhamra, women wing leader Shagufta Jumani, former home minister Sohail Anwar Siyal, Ali Hassan Zardari, Zia Lanjar and lawmakers from Hyderabad divisions attended the public meeting.

In her charged speech, MPA Faryal Talpur said that the six strategic canals issue had triggered agitation in Sindh.

She told the participants: “It’s a question of your livelihood … we will not allow turning Sindh into a Karbala … we will fight till our last breath but won’t allow the canals”.

Ms Talpur asked the federal authorities: “What are you going to do? You are going to irrigate a desert by destroying a garden, which is Sindh. Where did this thinking come from? What kind of politics is this? First you talked about Kalabagh Dam, then Greater Thal Canal and now you are talking of the six canals!”.

She said it was not an issue of Sindh alone, but the entire Pakistan.

She said PPP did not want chaos because [former party chairperson and prime minister] Benazir Bhutto always believed in federation.

She said PPP also did not want Karachi to stop getting drinking water supplies and farmers to stop receiving irrigation water.

She said PPP’s April 18 public meeting in Hyderabad should send a message to the corridors of power where officers should listen to it clearly. She termed the canals project a conspiracy against Sindh.

Nisar Khuhro, in his speech, mentioned the situation prevailing in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces and said: “There should not be a conflict between Sindh and Punjab”.

He said PPP would not allow attack on Sindh’s water and that’s why PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari was going to address a public meeting here on April 18.

He said that the voice of Sindh was now echoing across the world because students, lawyers, labourers and even children were raising slogans against the canals project.

Sharjeel Inam Memon said that Sindh’s rural areas’ economy revolved around water, livestock and agriculture. “And if you deprive us of these resources, then do you want to kill 70m people thirsty?” he remarked, and said: “You are sadly mistaken if you think you will execute this project and PPP will remain silent”.

He lashed out at PPP opponents for criticising PPP on the issue, arguing that these very people were staging rallies in favour of Kalabagh Dam in the Musharraf era. The PML-F, he added, had held such a rally in in Sanghar.

“Today, these elements are indulging in politics only to mislead people and launch a propaganda against Asif Ali Zardari,” he said.

Sindh Irrigation Minister Jam Khan Shoro said that President Asif Ali Zardari had opposed the new canals while addressing the joint session of parliament. He said PPP always stood with people of Sindh and they always stood with the PPP. He confidently said that people would attend the April 18 public meeting in large numbers.

Published in Dawn, April 14th, 2025