HYDERABAD, Oct 24: Speakers at a public meeting held at the Haider Chowk here on Thursday night decided to widen the scope of the Anti-Greater Thal Canal and Anti-Kalabagh Dam Action Committee to the national level.
The speakers, including leaders of political parties from the four provinces and the action committee, said there was a need to raise a joint voice against Kalabagh dam and Thal canal projects.
The proposal to enlarge the scope of the action committee came from Awami National Party chief and Senator Asfandyar Wali Khan who said this forum should not be confined to Sindh alone as water projects were also harmful for the NWFP. He said construction of the Kalabagh dam would not only render Sindh land barren but also sink the Frontier province.
The leaders lashed out at President Gen Pervez Musharraf, establishment, army generals and Punjab for pitting the people of the provinces against each other. They also accused the junta of corruption and stressed the need for unity among the people of the country.
Action committee convener and Sindh People’s Party Parliamentarians president Nisar Ahmad Khuhro said the committee leaders would visit the Frontier province on the invitation of Mr Asfandyar for working out modalities to enlarge the committee’s scope.
He reiterated that the PPP did not support the water projects and it had a similar viewpoint on the issue in Punjab and Sindh. He said it was evident from the presence of Punjab PPP president Qasim Zia, who had opposed the projects in the provincial assembly.
He held President Musharraf responsible for the present crisis. He also criticized Senator Nisar Memon for heading a committee on the water projects, saying the people of Sindh deplored the attitude of those who were acting against the interests of the province and supporting the president.
The ANP leader said there had been no change in his party’s stand on the water projects and added that the people of the NWFP would join the struggle against the projects.
Awami Tehrik chief Rasool Bux Palijo asked Gen Musharraf to confine himself to the necessary work mentioned in the apex court’s verdict that validated the army rule.
He agreed with the ANP chief’s proposal.
Sindh Tarraqi Pasand Party chairman Dr Qadir Magsi observed that only Sindh had the right over the waters of the River Indus, adding that the river was the symbol of the province’s civilization. He said the rulers should respect the historic rights of the provinces to ensure solidarity of the country.
He said Sindh was contributing billions of rupees to the national exchequer but its people were committing suicides because of unemployment and poverty.
The Punjab PPP chief attributed the crisis to the absence of national leadership and the Legal Framework Order which had vested all the powers in one person. He said the president had no right to raise issues which could create differences among the provinces and their people.
He said the people of Punjab did not want Sindh become barren and proposed the appointment of a commission, comprising provincial political leaders, to decide such issues.
Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal MNA Asadullah Bhutto said the government wanted to divert attention of the people from unemployment and price-hike by raising controversial issues.
He said statistics of the water projects were not provided to him in parliament when he asked for it.
Pakistan Muslim League-N’s Makhdoom Shahnawaz, Baloch leaders Abdul Hayee, former Senator Habib Jalib and Mir Hasil Bizanejo, Siraiki leader Abdul Majeed Kanju, Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-F leader Dr Khalid Mehmood Soomro, Sindh National Front leader Gul Mohammad Jakhrani and Pakhtoon Milli Awami Party leader Akram Shah also opposed the projects.