LAHORE, May 6: Former Punjab chief minister and speaker of the Punjab Assembly Hanif Ramay has termed the Sindh Yakjehti Council demand for entrusting the supervision of river water distribution between the provinces to the United Nations an attack on the national solidarity and asked the government to take serious notice of it.

In a statement issued here on Monday, Mr Ramay said that the UN observers were called during disputes between the countries but the water dispute between the provinces was purely an internal affair of Pakistan. He said that a serious notice of the SYC statement was also necessary in view of the fact that those who had issued the statement were considered near the government.

He said that the political leaders and workers belonging to the Punjab should raise their voice for the rights of the province as crops were being destroyed and cattle were dying in Seraiki belt. Lands in Sindh, on the other hand, were receiving three to four times canal water but the province continued complaining about water scarcity.

Mr Ramay said that there was water shortage in some parts of Sindh but water supply position was not satisfactory in other provinces either. if the provinces share water, they would also have to share its shortage. But Sindh was not only insisting on full share of water despite famine but also demanding the extra water promised by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in the event of construction of the Kalaabagh Dam even after obstructing its construction.