Three-day protest against PM’s nationality proposal concludes

The Awami Tehreek on Sunday warned the federal government of “strong resistance” if citizenship cards are issued to Afghan and Bengali immigrants or if the controversial projects of constructing dams on the Indus River are revived.

The party said that the three smaller provinces of the country have unequivocally rejected the idea of constructing the dams. The nationalist AT and its women front Sindhiyani Tehreek had organised a three-day hunger strike outside the Karachi Press Club that concluded on Sunday.

AT chief Dr Rasool Bakhsh Khaskheli led the protest camp, while hundreds of members of the AT and the ST sat there for three days. A number of leaders of other political and nationalist parties, the civil society and rights groups also showed solidarity with them.

Sindh United Party chief Syed Jalal Mehmood Shah, Pakistan Peoples Party Senator Aijaz Dhamrah, women rights activist Amar Sindhu, Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research head Karamat Ali, Sindh Taraqi Pasand Party’s Gulzar Soomro, Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz’s Asif Baladi, social activist Khuda Dino Shah, historian Gul Hassan Kalmati and Awami Jamhoori Party’s Ayaz Chandio were prominent among them.

The speakers said Sindh has already been suffering a water shortage due to reduced flow in the river. They said that construction of any dam without addressing and resolving the oldest Sindh-Punjab water dispute would not be fruitful when the assemblies of the three provinces have already passed resolutions against them.

They also criticised the prime minister’s proposal of providing nationality to Pakistan-born children of Afghan and Bengali immigrants. “Giving citizenship to aliens will make Sindhis a minority in their own homeland,” said a speaker.