LARKANA: Awami Tehreek has urged all progressive forces in the Punjab to rise against the government of Maryam Nawaz for her ‘poisonous’ statement on the water of Indus River and termed Pakistan Peoples Party’s walkout from Senate over her remarks as sheer fracas.

The party’s central president Advocate Vasand Thari said at a gathering held to mark the 4th death anniversary of senior party leader Comrade Manan Chandio in Warah town, Qambar-Shahdadkot district, on Wednesday night that in Punjab too, lands in Cholistan were being snatched from locals and handed over to corporate farming companies.

He condemned Maryam Nawaz’s ‘poisonous’ statement on the Indus River’s water and said that the British colonialists helped Punjab in stealing Sindh’s water and the army of Ranjit Singh fought the oppressed nations of the subcontinent for the sake of the British.

He said that the Indus water did not belong to Maryam Nawaz, nor to Gen Musharraf, Gen Zia, Gen Ayub, or Narendra Modi. It belonged to 70 million Sindhis and Punjab’s rulers were unwilling to honour any water agreement.

Punjab had already stolen 91 per cent of Sindh’s water share, and now Maryam Nawaz dreamt of constructing new canals in Cholistan, he added.

He said the PPP supported corporate farming schemes and allowed the Punjab government to construct new canals. PPP’s walkout from Senate was nothing but a fracas.

He said the PPP had deceived Sindhis with lies and fraud and urged the party to immediately stop this drama, revoke the notification of land allotments made by the Sindh government to corporate farming companies, and cancel all corporate farming projects.

One of Comrade Manan’s greatest merits was his being member of the working class besides being a writer and political leader, he said.

AT central senior vice president Noor Ahmed Katyar and other leaders saluted the struggle of Comrade Manan and said that he fought for the rights of oppressed people till his last breath.

They said that Sindh was under a multi-layered siege, on the one hand Punjab’s chief minister threatened to cut Sindh’s water, and on the other PPP had become an ally of PML-N in the federation.

Sindh’s rulers, they alleged, had supported the federal government in all anti-Sindh decisions for the sake of power. The decision on canals was made in the Presidential House, they said, adding the Sindh government, under IMF directives, had decided to cut employees’ pension, a decision unacceptable to Sindh. “We fully support the struggle of Sindh Employees Alliance,” they added.

Under the corporate farming, 1.3 million acres in Sindh alone, and a total of 4.8 million acres in Pakistan, were being handed over to corporate farming companies, they said.

They expressed concern over dec­line in procurement price of paddy and said it would be tantamount to economic murder of peasants.

They demanded fair price for paddy to protect peasants and farmers from exploitation by capitalists and feudal lords.

Published in Dawn, October 3rd, 2025