Khuhro urges Centre to scrap controversial canals project

Sindh Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) President Nisar Ahmed Khuhro has called upon the federal government to immediately roll back its plan to build new irrigation canals to draw additional water from the Indus River because of the stiff opposition to this move by the concerned quarters in Sindh.

Khuhro stated this on Saturday while speaking at an Iftar reception hosted by the unit of Peoples Para-Medical at the National Institute of Child Health.

He said the PPP would forcefully plead the case of the people of Sindh against the controversial canals' project at the relevant constitutional forum, including the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec), Council of Common Interests (CCI), and National Economic Council.

He told the audience at the Iftar reception that the people of Sindh had vociferously rejected the plan to build new canals on the Indus River. The ongoing vocal agitation by different concerned political, social and nationalist organisations against the canals' project reflected the sheer opposition of the people of Sindh against this move, he declared.

The PPP leader opined that the plan to build new canals on the Indus River carried greater negative repercussions for Sindh than the controversial Kalabagh Dam project.

He expressed the fear that the new canals on the Indus River would render barren the farmlands of Sindh. He alleged that the Indus River System Authority had unconstitutionally issued a no objection certificate for the new canals' project during the previous caretaker regime in the country.

Khuhro said additional water could not be supplied to the new canals given the acute water shortage in Indus Rover.

He urged the federal government to immediately convene a meeting of the CCI to listen to the valid reservations of Sindh about the canals' plan. He also lamented that the Water Accord 1991 was not being implemented.