SUKKUR/HYDERABAD/LARKANA: Lawyers’ leaders protesting at Babarloi bypass in Khairpur since Friday announced on Monday blocking railway tracks if federal government failed to shelve canals project within 72 hours.

They said that bar associations across Sindh would observe token boycott of courts and urged Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) to withdraw its support from federal government after expiry of the 72-hour ultimatum and the government’s failure to issue notification for shelving the project.

Karachi Bar Association (KBA) president, Amir Nawaz Warraich, and Hyderabad District Bar Association (HDBA) president, Ashar Majeed Khokhar, were sharing with media the decisions made by lawyers at the site of the sit-in that had been in progress at Babarloi bypass, Khairpur district, since Friday.

The sit-in was started in line with a decision taken at an All Sindh Lawyers Convention in Karachi on April 12.

Threaten to block railway tracks if govt does not take ultimatum seriously

Warraich said that it seemed the government did not take their ultimatum seriously and asked the government not to take the lawyers’ protest lightly as they would not compromise on Sindh’s rights.

“We had started protest over four points: 26the constitutional amendment, six canals, Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act 2025 and corporate farming,” he said.

He said that the lawyers’ leadership had issued 72-hour ultimatum to the government to shelve the canal project failing which they would block highways.

They had staged the sit-in under this announcement since Friday and the bar associations would observe token boycott of courts across Sindh, he said.

“We are expand the scope of this sit-in and we will be blocking highways at Kammo Shaheed (Ghotki district), Dera More (Kashmore) and Karachi,” he disclosed without announcing which point would be blocked in Karachi.

He said the bar association concerned would send some lawyers to Kammo Shaheed as well as Dera Morr, Kashmore.

He issued an ultimatum to PPP and said “we demand that PPP should withdraw its support from the ruling PML-N and quit the government if the latter doesn’t announce shelving of the canal project within 72 hours”.

He said that the decisions had been taken after consultation in lawyers’ standing committee. Building a canal for a desert was an unwise decision and it was the same experiment which was made by India and South Africa but they too had failed, he said.

Warraich said that later, they would also urge doctors and tea­chers to observe strike. Pakistan’s bars would also be requested to stage protest to show that they stood by Sindh’s bars and against this project, he said.

“Our committee of All Sindh Lawyers will meet on Thursday again after expiry of 72-hour ultimatum to decide future strategy. We will hold a press conference to announce our decision on railway tracks’ blockade,” he explained.

HDBA president Ashar Majeed Khokhar said: “Railway tracks will indeed be blocked after the expiry of the 72-hour deadline. Enough is enough,” he declared.

Lawyers, doctors, students hold protests

Lawyers did not appear in Larkana circuit bench of the Sindh High Court and lower courts in response to Sindh Bar Council’s call for protest against canals.

The lawyers said that their colleagues’ sit-in at Babarloi bypass would continue till the controversial canals project had been shelved.

The students of Chandka Medical College under the flag of all-parties students’ action committee held a demonstration on the college premises against the canals.

They marched on main roads of the city before assembling outside local press club where the protesters’ leaders told journalists that the canals project was aimed at destroying Sindh’s fertile land, striking at its economic resources, disrupting ecosystem, affecting Indus Delta and the civilisation. The controversial canals would drive a wedge between the provinces, they said and demanded the government cancel the plan.

The students of Benazir College of Nursing held a demonstration within the college premises at Arija campus of Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Medical University.

They demonstrated at the main gate of the university and said the canals project had generated a wave of unrest among all segments of society who were protesting and calling for withdrawal of the project.

The members of Pakistan Paramedical Staff Association also staged a demonstration against the canals at CMC Children Hospital.

The protesters’ leaders said that it would be unwise to go-ahead with the project that irrigate desert land in Cholistan at the cost of rendering thousands of acres of fertile land in Sindh barren.

It was a conspiracy and their organisation would not allow it to succeed, they said.

Published in Dawn, April 22nd, 2025