PPP leader occupies historic Drigh Lake, rest house

SUKKUR: Pakistan People’s Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has sought a report from the minister irrigation about Qamar-Shahdadkot’s famous Drigh Lake, which is a designated Ramsar and a World Heritage site, under the illegal possession of a PPP leader. Reportedly the party leader has also occupied the wildlife department’s rest house built along the lake.

The Sindh Wildlife Department has informed the chief secretary, Sindh in its report that the historic Drigh Lake, which is a landmark of Shahdadkot district, has been allegedly occupied by politically influential and powerful landlord Muhammed Nawaz Shaikh with the collusion of officials of the Sindh Revenue department.

The Drigh Lake is spread over 405 acres and runs for over 5.5km was declared a Ramsar site, wildlife sanctuary in 1972 and was also accorded the status of World Heritage site in 1976 by the UN. The lake formed in the early 19th Century also has the Wildlife's Rest House alongside.

The Wildlife Department has said that the Drigh Lake was handed over to the family of Muhammed Nawaz Shaikh in 1949 for the explicit purpose of 'looking after' the lake.

The Wildlife Department report has charged Muhammed Nawaz Shaikh for tempering the revenue record to get the wildlife department's rest house, vacated in 2012.

According to the detailed report of the Wildlife Department, Shaikh took the benefit of the commotion and widespread violence on the day Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in 2007.

In the ensuing violence, the revenue record of the Larkana District was set on fire in which all the records including that of the lake was reduced to ashes.

Subsquently, the report alleged that the PPP leader Muhammed Nawaz Shaikh in collusion with the revenue department consolidated his ownership with forged documents.

The PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari during his stay at the Naudero House directed Irrigation Minister Sindh Sohail Anwar Sial to furnish a report about it.