LARKANA: The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has accused Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz of defying a Council of Common Inte­rests (CCI) decision on a “controversial canal” plan and “insulting a constitutional forum”, urging Pakistan Muslim League-N leader Nawaz Sharif to state the party’s position.

In a statement issued on Saturday, PPP Sindh President Nisar Ahmed Khuhro said the CCI — the cons-titutional forum for settling inter-provincial matters — had “rejected and buried” the canal proposal and its unanimous decision bound all governments.

“Until all provinces agree, no canal project will be implemented, and Sindh will under no circumstances accept any project involving controversial canals,” he said, adding that the Punjab chief minister was “not above” the CCI.

Mr Khuhro argued that remarks from Maryam Nawaz amounted to a violation of the CCI’s decision. He said no one had stopped Punjab from building dams on its own rivers with its own water, but objected to talk of link canals and dams on the Indus River.

Nisar Khuhro says Sindh won’t accept Indus link canals without consensus

Citing the shelved Kalabagh Dam, he said former prime minister Nawaz Sharif had previously withdrawn support, asking “what standing” Maryam Nawaz had on the issue. “Sindh will not allow anyone to snatch water from the Indus or to build a dam on it,” he said.

He stressed that, constitutionally, the first right to water belongs to the downstream province — in this case Sindh — and warned that “an attack on Sindh’s water” would be seen as an attack on the province’s unity and the country’s cohesion. Mr Khuhro said Nawaz Sharif had shown “political sense” in the past, whereas Maryam Nawaz was “insulting constitutional forums”, and called on the PML-N supremo — “not Maryam Nawaz” — to clarify party policy.

Turning to flood relief, Mr Khuhro lamented that Maryam Nawaz opposed distributing assistance in Punjab through the Benazir Income Support Programme because of the PPP’s rising popularity in the province. Punjab, he said, was not any party’s personal fief and the PPP, like all political parties, had the right to organise there.

Mr Khuhro alleged that the chief minister’s claims about aid and relief to Punjab’s flood victims were “limited to TV channels”, saying many victims were still waiting for assistance.

He demanded that the Punjab government publicly disclose details of aid provided and present evidence of comprehensive relief.

He also accused the administration of carrying out “planned cuts” to dissipate floodwaters that “ruined poor farmers and their crops while saving the bungalows of the wealthy class.”

Published in Dawn, October 5th, 2025