HYDERABAD, Feb 11: The Sindh Water Committee, which met here on Friday, asked the Punjab and federal government to ensure justice to Sindh, given the fact that they are demanding the same from India in case of the Baglihar dam and diversion of waters of the Chenab River.

"The governments of Punjab and Pakistan should extend same justice to Sindh they demand from India, and stop all projects of damming or diverting waters of the River Indus and its tributaries", the SWC meeting observed.

It said that a lesson should be learnt from the Baglihar issue in which the upper riparian India was threatening storage of small quantity of Chenab waters but the Punjab and Pakistan governments expected that India would subsequently make plan for diversion of the entire waters of the river.

It observed that in the wake of bitter experiences, people of Sindh refused to believe anyone and could seek help of neutral referees like the UN, Saarc and the OIC to settle the water issue taking into account plunder of Sindh's share of common waters and to provide compensation to it for injustices on account of water distribution.

The SWC demanded that construction of illegal Greater Thal canal and talk of damming the Indus be stopped. It deliberated on a statement of President Gen Pervez Musharraf, who said that the report of technical committee on the water issue would be placed before cabinet and the National Assembly for debate, and noted that matters of water sharing were to be decided by the Council of Common Interests under the constitution and if it failed to resolve differences, the same could be placed before a joint session of parliament.

However, the meeting observed that parliament was dominated by a particular province terms of representation which was a travesty of the principle of federalism, thus, in essence and reality, it was a parliament of One Unit.

It described the president's decision to construct of the Thal canal an unconstitutional and immoral act violating constitutional guarantees to Sindh and added that he had started talking about Kalabagh and other dams to divert attention of people of Sindh from the canal.

It recalled the sale of Sutlej, Beas and Ravi rivers to India without permission of their co-owners, people of Sindh, and mismanagement of waters of the Mangla Dam, saying that Sindh did not get a single drop of water from it since 1967.

The SWC pointed out that the Chashma-Jehlum and Taunsa-Panjnad link canals flowed as perennial canals though they were to flow water only during floods in the Indus, adding that both the canals constantly drained 33,000 cusecs out of the Indus to Punjab's barrages when there was an acute water shortage in Sindh.

The SWC reiterated that land and cultivation in lower half of Sindh had been destroyed through denial of waters by a particular province Punjab to Sindh as only a trickle of water was flowing into Sindh presently.

The meeting said that if any water was stored at Kalabagh or any other place, trickle of water which was allowed to come to Sindh today would be stopped and it would be ruined and turned into a desert. The meeting was presided over by SWC president Rasool Bux Palijo.