HYDERABAD: Pakistan Peoples Party Senator Sassui Palijo has lashed out at the federal government for ‘depriving’ Sindh of its water by reducing flows into irrigation channels during the current Kharif season. She also condemned excessive load-shedding in the summer season “in order to victimise PPP lawmakers for their act of exposing federal ministers, like [Minister of State for Water and Power] Abid Sher Ali in the parliament”.
Addressing a press conference at the Sindhi Language Authority (SLA) office here on Saturday, Sen Palijo, along with other PPP leaders including Aftab Ahmed Khanzada and Ahsan Abro, said adequate water flows from Mangla must be ensured as it was a national reservoir and not a fief of some individual.
Apparently reacting to Mr Sher Ali’s recent series of stinging broadsides against the PPP leadership in Hyderabad and Thatta, she said: “I warn [the federal government] that Thatta and Hyderabad will become a no-go area for PML-N ministers if they don’t correct their tone while discussing politics”.
She repeatedly said: “We have controlled our party workers but this would be impossible next time if Abid Sher Ali and those of his ilk used intemperate language against the PPP”.
She observed that [Prime Minister] Nawaz Sharif recently visited Sindh and spoke politely to express his love with the people of Thatta but then Abid Sher Ali came only to badmouth them [Thatta people]. “The federal government is dealing with Sindh like colonial masters”, she remarked.
She condemned the “abusive language” used by the state minister against elected representatives of Thatta during his open katchehri.
Sen Palijo told reporters that her schemes pertaining to gas supply in Thatta which were approved in 2011 were never executed. Out of 97 schemes, 77 were executed in Lahore, Gujranwala and Faisalabad. “Sindh produces 70 per cent of gas and Punjab three per cent but the latter uses 45pc gas,” she noted, and observed that during the Nawaz regime, electricity and gas resources [of Sindh] were shifted to somewhere else. She guessed that the federal government was frustrated over likely indictment [of the PM] in the Panama Papers case.
The PPP lawmaker also challenged the Shirazi brothers saying: “You won in Thatta by resorting to rigging otherwise all seats belong to us.”
Ms Palijo said that the PML-N government failed to take up the Indus Waters Treaty issue with India for building a reservoir upstream while it also started taking credit for military operations carried out under the leadership of former army chief Raheel Sharif.
She warned that the Right Bank Outfall Drain (RBOD) would sink Thatta.
While Thatta and Sujawal were badly hit by a water shortage, Punjab was drawing additional water through its link canals, she said, adding that Punjab’s industry was flourishing but Sindh’s was suffering for want of gas.
She slammed the federal government for not announcing the 9th National Finance Commission (NFC) Award which had become due in June 2015, and called for its immediate announcement. She also demanded implementation of the 1991 Water Accord in letter and spirit.
Published in Dawn, April 9th, 2017