KARACHI, Dec 23: The Anti-Kalabagh Dam and Thal Canal Action Committee, comprising a number of Sindh-based political and nationalist parties, would meet in a week to take a joint decision on future strategy with regard to ongoing movement against the disputed projects of dams and canals.
This was stated by chief of the Pakistan People’s Party, Sindh, Syed Qaim Ali Shah while talking to PPI here on Friday.
The Awami National Party is organizing an anti-dam rally in Peshawar on December 29 and we have been invited by its leader, Asfandyar Wali, to participate in the protest. He said that the committee would be meeting just before or after that rally.
In reply to a question, he said that the KBD issue would be raised again in the December 30 session of the Sindh Assembly. The opposition had requisitioned the session solely for this purpose, he added. “The government had prorogued the session abruptly because of Gen Musharraf’s visit to Sindh, although we wanted to continue the debate on an adjournment motion pertaining to the KBD,” he said.
Mr Shah expressed the determination that the opposition would not let the government to run away from the debate, and would continue to mount pressure until the ‘anti-Sindh’ projects were scrapped.
The PPP leader said the rulers stood isolated as they had now been left with the support of only PML-Q, the “king’s” party, and an individual, Pir Sahib Pagara.
He described the mammoth rally against Kalabagh dam on Dec 22 in Karachi as “an eye-opener for the rulers”, and pointed out that not only the people belonging to all political and nationalist parties of Sindh had participated in it, but the political leaders and workers from Balochistan and NWFP also took part to express their rejection of the project. “This proves that all the three provinces were united against the KBD,” he added.
Syed Qaim Ali Shah said that the schedule of demonstrations and sit-ins in Lahore would be decided by the action committee.
anp leader: Senator Asfandyar Wali, President of the Awami National Party (ANP), on Friday assured people of Sindh and Balochistan that his party would continue to support the constitutional, legal and democratic struggle against the construction of Kalabagh dam as well as the ongoing military operation in Balochistan.
Talking to various delegations and other people who called on him before his departure for Islamabad, he said he would resist construction of the Kalabagh dam till his last breath, and express his confidence that rulers would not be able to raise the dam as long as he was alive.
He said people of Sindh and their leadership had unanimously rejected the controversial water projects and had also endorsed the earlier resolutions of the other two provinces in this regard.
The senator observed that the government was out to create a rift between Punjab and the other provinces, and warned that this which could lead the country to a very dangerous situation.
He also deplored the government for adopting the ‘course of terrorism’ to crush the voice for democratic rights in Balochistan.
Asfandyar Wali announced that he would arrive in Quetta on Dec 25 and try to mobilize Baloch and Pakhtoon people against the government’s policies.
Shahi Syed, Sindh chief of the ANP, said that the Thursday rally against the KBD would prove the last nail in the coffin of the present regime, and they were now left with no option but to honour the will of masses.
He reiterated the ANP’s stand that Kalabagh dam was a matter of life and death for people of both Sindh and the NWFP as its construction would turn Sindh into a desert and inundate the NWFP.
Other ANP leaders, including Farooq Bangash, Amin Khattak and Rana Gul Afridi, also spoke to the people.—PPI