HYDERABAD, Dec 21: People’s Party Parliamentarians MNA Nawab Mohammad Yousuf Talpur has severely criticized the acute shortage of water in Sindh saying that not a drop of water was available in the Nara Canal.

He said this while speaking at a press conference at the press club on Thursday.

Mr Talpur said the sugar mill owners had defied the government notification by refusing to start the crushing season on Oct 15.

He said that if the sugar mills were not prepared to lift the sugarcane, they should have told the growers not to cultivate last year’s crop.

He warned the mill owners to mend their ways, otherwise the PPP would be forced to ask the party cadre to take over the possession of the sugar mills and start the crushing of sugarcane themselves.

He said that the Legal Framework Order was not a part of the 1973 Constitution and if the government wanted to include it in the Constitution, it should introduce an amendment bill in the parliament.

Referring to the statement of the federal information minister, Shaikh Rasheed Ahmed, in which he had said that the LFO was an integral part of the 1973 Constitution and that if the opposition wanted to exclude it then it should move an amendment in the National Assembly, Mr Talpur said that the MNAs, while taking oath, had been given a categorical assurance by the presiding officer of the National Assembly, Illahi Bux Soomro, that they were taking oath under the 1973 Constitution, adding that Mr Soomro had even waved a copy of the 1973 Constitution in the house to substantiate his point.

He emphasized that the onus lay on the government to introduce amendment in the Constitution, and not on the opposition.

He said that if the MNAs had been informed that the LFO was a part of the Constitution, they would have refused to take oath.

He accused the government of promoting “Lotacracy” and horse-trading both at the centre as well as in the Sindh Assembly.

He said if 10 turncoats of the PPP had not voted for Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali and five turncoats of the PPP and two of the MMA had not voted for Ali Mohammad Mahar, they would not have been elected as Prime Minister and Sindh Chief Minister respectively.

He argued that the 1973 Constitution had been restored on Dec 12, and, therefore, the “Lotas” had lost their seats under the Constitution for crossing the floor and were rendered disqualified.