PPP won’t allow anti-people canals project: Murad

During a media talk in Sehwan’s Saeedabad area on Saturday, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) would not allow the anti-people canals project, stressing that the issue would be resolved before the budget.

Shah said Sindh is protesting against the controversial canals project, adding that the people of the province know that if anyone can resolve the issue, it is the PPP.

He said the Indus River System Authority had approved the canals project during the caretaker government, but the PPP would not allow any anti-people project to be built.

He also said President Asif Zardari spoke at the Parliament House that he cannot support the canals project, adding that the PPP is demonstrating the public’s opinion against the project in all its regional headquarters.

Shah said PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto had voiced his clear stance against the project on the death anniversary of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in Larkana. A day earlier in Hyderabad, the PPP held a big protest rally, while on April 25 the party will do the same in Sukkur, he added.

He said the PPP would hold public rallies in Shaheed Benazirabad, Mirpurkhas and Karachi, adding that a conspiracy has been hatched against the party under the guise of the canals project.

“If the decision to build canals is not reversed, we’ll withdraw support from the government. I had conducted a survey long ago, and have still sent people there [Cholistan].”

He pointed out that a model of four to five hundred feet has been built, and that it is not complete, as they just wanted to show it to some people.

The CM said work on the canals project had been stopped in July-August 2024. “Only 200 metres out of 300km has been completed to show people that the work is complete. What’s happening is completely wrong. As long as the PPP exists, the canals won’t be built.”

He said Benazir Bhutto had also stopped the Kalabagh Dam project, adding that Zardari and Bilawal would never allow the anti-Sindh project to be built.

He also said the PPP’s provincial government has been continuously protesting with the federation on the canals issue. “The problem is that some people are used to talking too much without understanding it, and later they apologise.”

Shah said Bilawal has said he is not with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on the canals issue. “We are Bilawal Bhutto’s soldiers, and will not back down.”

Punjab’s issue

Sindh Local Government Minister Saeed Ghani has said the issue of proposed new canals on the Indus River is important for not only for the Pakistan Peoples Party and growers in Sindh but also for Punjab's farmers.

He stated this on Saturday after nomination papers were submitted at the office of the Sindh election commissioner in Karachi for PPP candidates for the upcoming by-election on a Senate seat which became vacant recently due to the death of senior Pakistan Peoples Party leader Taj Haider.

Ghani reiterated the stance of the PPP that the proposed controversial canals, if constructed, would not only create serious problems for the existing cultivable land in Sindh but also affect the farming sector in Punjab owing to a resultant serious shortage of irrigation water in the two provinces.

He said the Punjab government's claim that the available irrigation water in the province would be used to operate the new canals was unsubstantiated because Punjab's growers, like the farmers in Sindh, had been facing a shortage of water for farming activities so there was no excess water in Punjab to irrigate proposed new farmlands in Cholistan.