LARKANA: The All Sindh Lawyers Action Committee, which had run a successful campaign in Sindh against controversial canals issue, has said that it has now launched a similarly vigorous struggle against corporate farming.
The fresh struggle will also forcefully resist the 26th Constitutional Amendment and the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (Peca), according to leaders of the committee.
Lawyers held a protest demonstration, sit-in and token hunger strike on Thursday on the premises of the Sindh High Court (SHC), Larkana, to formally launch the struggle.
Leading the participants, SHCBA Larkana President Advocate Athar Abbas Solangi said that the decision to go for the fresh struggle was taken after the Sindh government failed to keep its word. He explained that the All Sindh Lawyers Action Committee had started its struggle against corporate farming, 26th constitutional amendment and Peca along with the issue of canals on March 4 at Babarloi Bypass in Khairpur.
After the Council of Common Interest (CCI) took the decision to temporarily stop work on the canals project, some fellows had insisted that the sit-in at Babarloi should be continued, but a majority of lawyers suggested that it should be ended as government was ready to settle the issue through negotiations.
While ending the sit-in, lawyers’ leaders formed a committee for negotiations with government’s representatives on May 13. However, he regretted, no one from the government side turned up for the negotiations on the date.
Advocate Solangi said that the All Sindh Lawyers Action Committee ultimately dissolved its negotiating team. He said lawyers would hold protests right from Karachi to Kashmore which would force the federal government to meet its demands, mainly shelving of the corporate farming plan.
He urged Sindh United Party (SUP) President Syed Zain Shah (who is also convener of the Save Indus River Movement (SIRM)), Grand Democratic Alliance leader Sadaruddin Shah Rashidi, Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl’s Rashid Mehmood Soomro and Pakistan Peoples Party-Shaheed Bhutto’s Zulfiqar Junior to demonstrate unity once again by joining the struggle, so that Sindh’s lands [doled out to corporate sector] could be retrieved.
“Sindh’s lands belong to the people of Sindh, and not to any corporate firm,” he said, and expressed his confidence that political, nationalist, social and all other entities would rise up and compel the government to kneel before the will of the masses.
Advocate Solangi said that registering cases against those agitating for the cause could not stop them from raising voice for their rights.
“The spirit seen at Babarloi Bypass will now be seen in the struggle against corporate farming as well,” he said.
Advocates Javed Gopang, Sajid Hussain Mahesar, Shafqat Raza Jatoi, Hazar Ahmed Mahesar, Tahir Rind, Mumtaz Jessar and others demanded accountability for the theft of Sindh’s water being committed for decades together. It was height of injustice that the Chashma-Jhelum Link Canal and Taunsa-Panjnad Canal — originally flood canals — were now flowing round the year,” they deplored, and also alleged that the Sindh government had already doled out around 1.4 million acres of land to various firms in the name of corporate farming.
They demanded that the corporate farming plan be scrapped and the 26th constitutional amendment and Peca repealed.
Published in Dawn, May 16th, 2025