CCI should decide on canals project, says Miftah Ismail

HYDERABAD: Unlike other parties, the Awaam Pakistan Party is not playing on both sides of the wicket on the issue of canals on the Indus River.

Miftah Ismail, secretary general of the Awaam Pakistan Party and former federal finance minister said this on Saturday while speaking to the media at the Hyderabad Press Club.

He explained that in Pakistan, the total annual river water inflow was 145 million acre feet. According to the 1991 water accord, Sindh was entitled to 48 million acre feet of water. However, 20 to 25 million acre feet of water either evaporated into the air or was absorbed by the ground as nobody knew where it disappeared, he added.

The most difficult period in terms of water availability in Sindh was from April to June every year as there was a severe shortage of water in the province, Ismail said.

He called for implementing the water policy formulated in Pakistan in 2018 and stated that the issue of the Cholistan canal should be decided by the Council of Common Interests (CCI).

Speaking about wheat prices, he said what happened to the wheat crop in Sindh this year was in front of everyone. He lamented that farmers were troubled because of the government’s flawed policies.

“In a country already facing water shortages, if someone’s water share is further reduced, of course, it becomes a problem,” the former finance minister remarked as he asked all the stakeholders across the country to sit together and let the CCI make a decision.

He asked the proponents of the new canals to clearly explain from where the water in the new canals would come in all the seasons.

He said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his cabinet had done nothing except increasing their own salaries. He asked what one could expect in a country where 27 million children were out of school.

Commenting on the increase in foreign exchange, Ismail asserted that although $4 million had come into Pakistan in foreign exchange, the amount was going to decrease this month.

The Awaam Pakistan Party leader said if the prices of petroleum and cotton had gone down globally, there was no role of Shehbaz in that. “These people passed the 26th amendment in the darkness of night,” he stated, adding that the roads of Balochistan could even not be constructed this year because they were not approved.

He said the Pakistan Peoples Party was in a difficult position due to its U-turn.