HYDERABAD, Feb 23: The leader of opposition in the Sindh Assembly, Nisar Ahmad Khuhro, has opposed construction of the greater Thal canal, saying it will render land of Sindh barren.

Talking to journalists at a wedding ceremony in Qasimabad here on Sunday, the president of the People’s Party Parliamentarians, Sindh, said the canal was being constructed to irrigate over 1.5 million acres in Punjab.

Saying it was a critical issue confronting Sindh, he hoped the MPAs, including those of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, would oppose the project in the Sindh Assembly, which would discuss it on Tuesday.

He said any decision on the Thal canal should have been taken after the question of quantity of water released downstream Kotri was finalized.

He said like the Kalabagh dam, Thal canal project was being opposed as it was an agriculture-related project and not a power-producing project.

Mr Khuhro said Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Jamali and President Gen Pervez Musharraf had presided over meetings of the Sindh cabinet which, according to him, indicated they had no confidence in the Sindh government.

He said it also indicated that the federal government needed some results from the Sindh government.

He said the opposition would also give its point of view on issues of Sindhi language, agriculture and the Lyari Expressway on the floor of the assembly.

The PPP leader said his party was not opposing the Lyari Expressway as it had itself launched the project in 1993 but the project was later modified.

About the Sindh government, he wondered “whether it is headed by the governor or chief minister” as the former presided over a meeting that discussed law and order situation.

Criticizing transfers of government officials, Mr Khuhro said it was a direct interference by the government in affairs of different departments.

Asked would his party try to form a government in Sindh with the Muttahida if the coalition government collapsed, the PPP leader replied in affirmative, saying before formation of the present Sindh government, his party’s first priority was to form a government with the Muttahida.

He said “ being based on an artificial majority”, the Sindh government was committing blunder after blunder in running affairs of the province.

Demanding a judicial inquiry into the murder of Muttahida leader Khalid Bin Waleed, he said the statement of Sindh home minister Syed Sardar Ahmad that there was no need to initiate judicial investigation into the murder was a manifestation of the fact that the murder was the result of internal fighting in the Muttahida.