THATTA/SUKKUR: Qaumi Awami Tehreek (QAT) chief Ayaz Latif Palijo led an impressive march against federal government’s controversial canals project here on Monday.

Several hundred QAT activists and supporters held the march from Darya Wari Mori to Buhara town raising slogans against the project, federal auth­orities, Sindh government and Pakis­tan Peoples Party. They were waving party flags and carrying placards and banners inscribed with slogans against federal government’s policies.

Speaking to them in Buhara, where the marchers held a sit-in, Ayaz Latif Palijo strongly condemned federal government’s plans to draw six strategic canals and introduce corporate farming. He said that all such initiatives and projects were extremely harmful to Sindh.

He pointed out that the entire Sindh had erupted in protest against these projects, and warned that the resistance would escalate further if the federal government did not heed the voice of the masses. He stressed that the canals project must be scrapped immediately.

Palijo said that any move to draw a new canal from the Indus, build a dam over it or divert its water without the consent of federating units would be a violation of the relevant accord and treaty as well as violation of the Constitution. “The federation does not have the authority to take any such decision,” he said, and urged every citizen of Sindh to join in the struggle against these moves. He called for a united and vigorous campaign by the people of Sindh to protect resources of this province.

The QAT chief accused the PPP and PML-N of having colluded on the canals project, and said that they had compromised Sindh’s interests to the benefit of Punjab.

He said that Kalabagh dam and Greater Thal Canal projects had to be buried after mass movement in the past and these ‘anti-Sindh’ projects would meet the same fate.

“The six canals project is in fact ‘death warrant’ for Sindh,” he remarked, and asked President Asif Ali Zardari, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and their party to stop clandestinely supporting it for remaining in power.

QAT’s Yasir Jakharo also spoke to the participants.

MQM-P slams Sindh govt’s ‘double standards’

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan’s Leader of Opposition in Sindh Assembly, Ali Khurshidi, has said that construction of canals on Indus is an extremely serious issue and hit out at Sindh government for its ‘double standards’ over the controversial water projects.

He said that the Sindh government had allotted millions of acres of land [for corporate farming], which should be immediately cancelled. “Appr­ovals are being given on paper but slogans of ‘Canal na khappay’ are being raised in the streets. This double standard will not work,” he said.

Mr Khurshidi, flanked by Sindh Assembly members Abdul Wasim, Danial Siddiqui, Najam Mirza, Mahesh Kumar, former MPA Dewan Chand Chawla, MQM-P district incharge Naeem Khan and other office bearers, was speaking at a press conference at Sukkur Press Club on Monday.

He said that the canals project was an extremely serious issue as its impact would be felt by every citizen of the province. “We will not allow anyone to steal Sindh’s water; there is no compromise on this,” he said in unequivocal terms.

He accused the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) of adopting a hypocritical stance on this issue and revealed that the president chaired a meeting on July 8, 2024, which gave approval for the six canals. “Even today, the record of this meeting is available on the President’s website, of which I have obtained a printout,” he said.

Published in Dawn, April 15th, 2025