HYDERABAD: Lea­ders of Awami Tehreek have called for restructuring of the Council of Common Interests by giving equal representation to all provinces as Punjab uses its majority on the council to usurp resources of Sindh and other smaller provinces.

AT president Vasand Thari, central vice president Noor Katiar, Abdul Qadir Ranto, Lal Jarwar and others said at a press conference after attending meeting of the party’s central council on Sunday that they participated in lawyers’ sit-in at Babarloi bypass and condemned firing at the sit-in participants.

They said that Sindh and federal governments and rulers of Punjab were conspiring to suppress democratic struggle of Sindhi people through violence.

They said that Sindh government failed to make necessary security arrangements and demanded Sindh chief minister be held accountable for lawlessness while DIG and SSP of Sukkur be dismissed.

They said that corporate farming was directly linked with canals and anyone who talked about canals but not corporate farming was hiding the truth.

The Board of Investment Amendment Bill, 2023, was passed into law during PDM government, which included projects of corporate farming, canals, SIFC and Green Initiative Pakistan, they said.

They termed it a black law and said that PPP and ruling parties should stop deceptive acts of passing resolutions against canals in assemblies and added that PML-N and PPP were two sides of the same coin.

They said that AT resolved to actively participate in Babarloi bypass sit-in. The CCI was dominated by Punjab where Punjab used its numerical advantage to decide the fate of other provinces and plunder their resources, they said, and called for restructuring CCI on the basis of equal representation.

They said that AT had decided to stage rallies across Sindh.

The seventh death anniversary of Rasool Bux Palijo would be held on June 21 in Thatta and political leadership would be invited to attend the gathering, they said.

Published in Dawn, April 22nd, 2025