Sattar wants Zardari to apologise for ‘his role in canal project’s approval’

Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) leader Dr Farooq Sattar has asked President Asif Ali Zardari to apologise to the people of Sindh for chairing a meeting at the Presidency in Islamabad that supported the plan of constructing new canals on the Indus River that is being vehemently opposed by several concerned quarters in Sindh.

At a press conference on Friday, the MQM-P leader made this demand while answering a media person's question regarding the current agitation drive in Sindh against the proposed construction of new irrigation canals.

Dr Sattar suggested to the federal government that highly controversial plans like the construction of new canals, which utterly lacked national consensus, should be discussed and resolved at the forum of the Council of Common Interests (CCI) as per the spirit of the Constitution.

He said the CCI taking up and thoroughly discussing this issue would let Sindh vocally object to the proposed plan with valid technical arguments.

Alternatively, an all parties' conference or a national-level dialogue should be held by any of the mainstream political parties in the country, including the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Pakistan Peoples Party or Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, to discuss and resolve the serious controversy surrounding the canal project, he added.

He opined that the government should not go ahead with the proposed canal project without evolving a national-level consensus on the issue. Dr Sattar recalled that the MQM-Pakistan during Pervez Musharraf's regime, despite being in power at that time, had vocally opposed the government's plan of constructing large dams in the country as per the aspirations of the concerned quarters in Sindh. He said the MQM-P's opposition to the construction of big dams had a decisive role in thwarting Musharraf's regime from constructing large water reservoirs in the country.

He informed the media that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had accepted an invitation from the MQM-P to visit Karachi and address a public meeting of the party in the provincial capital. He claimed that owing to the MQM-P's efforts, the government had reviewed its contracts with the independent power producers, which led to the recent reduction in the electricity rates.

Apart from the domestic consumers, the Karachi-based industrialists would be the major beneficiaries of the government's decision to slash the electricity tariff, he said and expressed the hope that the government would further reduce the electricity rates.

He said the MQM-P's lawmakers, who were part of the elected legislatures in the country, had been continuously striving to slash electricity rates to extend due financial relief to the masses.

Dr Sattar also expressed the hope that the first phase of the K-IV bulk water supply project, having a 260 million gallons per day capacity, would become operational by July next year. He added that up to 50 per cent construction work on the first phase of the K-IV project had been completed.

He told the media that the government had tasked the Water and Power Development Authority with constructing the K-IV project as per the MQM-P's demand.

He said the State Bank of Pakistan had also curtailed the interest rate to extend the due economic relief to the people. He called for the SBP to further slash the interest rate and give loans on easy terms to the prospective entrepreneurs to alleviate the economic problems of the country.