HYDERABAD, April 16: The Sindh Democratic Party (SDP) has condemned the decision of the Indus River System Authority to distribute water on the basis of historical use.

In a joint statement issued here on Wednesday, SDP chairman Yousuf Leghari, vice-chairman Ibrahim Joyo and secretary-general Nazeer Memon said the decision was in violation of the directives of the federal government.

They said Irsa had declined to honour the 1991 Water Accord which was signed by all the federating units although the people of Sindh had demanded distribution of waster on the basis of the 1945 agreement.

They also condemned the Irsa decision not to release water downstream Kotri.

The Sindh government and its bureaucrats had not taken a strong stand before the federal government and Irsa on issues of the province. They had surrendered Sindh’s right before the Punjab chief minister who recently visited the province, the SDP leaders said.

They said the Irsa chairman was bound under the law to implement the 1991 Water Accord and he should not take refuge behind the directives of the chief executive. The chief executive office did not exist any more, they reminded the Irsa chairman.

The SDP leaders also ridiculed argument that water above the Kotri Barrage was in short supply and downstream Kotri it was in surplus.

They claimed the people of Sindh did not accept decisions of the Sindh government and they were free to take the water issue to all the forums for resolving it.

They said the people of Sindh held all the parties constituting the Sindh government responsible for selling the water rights of the province.

They said the non-release of water downstream Kotri would badly affect the agriculture sector of the province.

The leaders of the SDP demanded of Irsa to revoke its “illegal” decisions.

The called upon the People’s Party Parliamentarians and other political parties to take up this issue in the Sindh Assembly and the National Assembly.

They also called upon editors of the country’s leading newspapers to raise the issue in their editorials.

They said political and nationalist parties of the province, Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, civil society forums and the media should take a joint stand against these decisions.