HYDERABAD: Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) parlia­mentary leader in the National Assembly Syed Naveed Qamar has said that blame game will harm the opposition and benefit the “selected government”.

He was speaking at an inaugural ceremony of a college in his home constituency in Tando Mohammad Khan on Wednesday.

He said the federal government would have to adopt a Taliban policy that protected Pakistan’s interests. Afghan refugees should be kept in border areas to safeguard Pakistan’s economic conditions and they should not be harmed.

Mr Qamar said Sindh was facing severe water shortage which caused serious damage to the standing crops.

He said Sindh was not getting water in line with Water Accord 1991. People were facing difficulties even in getting drink­ing water, he added.

He said people in urban and rural centres of Sindh faced a fundamental problem — unavailability of drinking water. Since water was not being distributed judiciously, Sindh was facing drought-like conditions, he observed.

The PPP leader said Chotiyari dam could not be filled and Karachi was also facing drinking water shortage.

If the situation did not improve, people would face more difficul­ties. He ridiculed government’s announcement about cut in fuel prices.

He said that price hike had reached its peak, but the government had not paid any attention to it.

He said the poor were facing starvation.

The PPP government had decided to launch a protest campaign against water shortage, he said, stressing that the opposition would have to play a proactive role.

Published in Dawn, September 2nd, 2021