LAHORE: The farmer leaders have sought help of the United Nation, the US and World Bank for ensuring unrestricted supply of water through rivers flowing towards Pakistan from Indian-Held Kashmir (IHK) under Indus Water Treaty (IWT).
The farmers from across the country would gather in Islamabad on October 19 to lodge their protest on, what they called, non-implementation of Indus Water Treaty by India. The construction of several water and power projects on Indus, Jhelum and Chenab Rivers by India is a serious threat to river flows toward Pakistan, said Ayub Khan Mayo, Sardar Tariq Bugti and Farooq Amanullah Daraishak, central leaders of Pakistan Mutahidda Kissan Mehaz (PMKM), here on Sunday.
Addressing a press conference at the Lahore Press Club, the farmer leaders said that fair distribution of water between India and Pakistan had immense importance not only for the survival and livelihood of people but for peace in this region. The growers would be left with no option but to rally on the Diplomatic Enclave in the federal capital for presenting a memorandum to representatives of the United Nations, the US and World Bank if their demands were not met.
The farmer representatives opined that Indian hegemonic policies in South Asia had resulted in squeezing water supplies to Pakistan through western rivers. It is unfortunate that India has openly threatened to stop water flow of rivers and for this purpose a series of dams and hydropower projects are established or planned on western rivers that have actually been allotted to Pakistan under the Indus Water Treaty, they said and added that such a huge infrastructure on western rivers could be manipulated for restricting flows of river water towards Pakistan.
The PMKM leaders were of the view that the posture of present Indian leadership was very much aggressive as far as sharing of water of western rivers was concerned. They observed that Indian nefarious designs had been very much visible regarding attempts to block river water flow, saying numerous instance of IWT violation were testimony to the fact.
During negotiation over designs of several projects, they lamented, it had emerged that India tried to increase storage capacity of certain projects on western rivers and, unfortunately, some of these violations were allowed against the spirit and provisions of Indus Water Treaty.
With the coordination of 18 farmer organisations, they said, “We are confident that thousands of farmers from all provinces would attend the demonstration in the federal capital, which would be held on the 57th anniversary of IWT.
The farmer leaders also asked the federal and provincial governments to take immediate steps for increasing water storage capacity so that the menace of water scarcity could be minimised. They also stressed the need for early completion of Katchi Canal project. After lapse of 12 years, work on the first phase of Katchi Canal could not be completed, which is sheer injustice with the people of Balochistan, they concluded.
