HYDERABAD, Oct 31: The Anti-Greater Thal Canal and Kalabagh Dam Action Committee decided on Tuesday to step up protests against what it called injudicious distribution of water and announced that it would stage a rally in Larkana on November 28 to protest against allocation of funds for construction of dams on the River Indus.

The committee at a meeting held at the residence of MPA Syed Ali Nawaz Shah in Gulistan-e-Sajjad announced that it would observe a province-wide black day on November 7 against the sale of two islands of Karachi.

The meeting presided over by the committee’s convenor Syed Qaim Ali Shah who is also provincial president of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), condemned the assassination of Nawab Akbar Bugti and massacre of innocent people in Bajaur and demanded that FIRs should be registered against Gen Pervez Musharraf for the gory crimes.

Mr Shah told reporters at the end of a three-hour meeting that the federal government had sold out the two islands of Sindh to a foreign company leaving the Sindh government to hoodwink people.

Sindh chief minister’s statements on the issue only add to the confusion and ambiguity while the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) continued to play a very dangerous game, he charged.

He denied the argument that the islands’ sale would lead to development and prosperity in the province and said that their sale was in fact part of a dangerous conspiracy.

The islands’ land was fertile and it was inhabited by human beings not animals, he said adding that the committee had, therefore, decided to observe black day throughout the province on November 7 against their sale.

Mr Shah said that transferring powers of allocating Karachi’s lands to the governor who was a representative of the federation was utterly illegal and unconstitutional. The chief minister’s utterances that the land of Sindh was the property of Sindh government rang hollow, he said.

He criticised the federal government for allocating funds for purchasing land for the construction of dams on River Indus and said that even the Irsa chairman had admitted that the distribution of water was not judicious and the telemetry system was ineffective.

Mr Shah pointed out that the Sindh government was accountable for its actions to people who asked it why their water was being wasted and stolen. The rulers themselves were involved in the theft of water and were just trying to pass the buck by implicating the supporters of opposition parties in false cases, he blamed.

He strongly opposed the construction of any dam on River Indus and said that the action committee would hold a big rally in Larkana on November 28 followed by a similar one in Mirpurkhas to protest against the government’s move.

He criticised Gen Musharraf for twisting facts and targeting his party in his autobiography and demanded that two separate FIRs should be registered against the general for the Bugti’s murder and Bajaur massacre.

STP Chairman Dr Qadir Magsi, Jamaat-i-Islami Sindh Amir Dr Mumtaz Ali Memon, Yousuf Masti Khan of National Workers Party, Awami Tahreek leader Ayaz Latif Palijo, SNF leader Ayoub Shar, Taj Mohammad Nahiyoon (JUI-F), PML-N leader Afzal Gujjar, Shah Mohammad Shah, Waheed Qureshi and Nazeer Memon attended the meeting.