‘PPP inciting people of Sindh against Centre with false propaganda on water share’

Leaders of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Sunday alleged that Sindh's water was being given to political personalities and blue-eyed tribal chieftains and Sindh Irrigation Minister Sohail Anwar Siyal could not cover up the facts by issuing misleading statements.

PTI MPA Khurrum Sher Zaman accused the irrigation minister of lying over the water situation in Sindh. “If the minister of irrigation had done a proper study on water, the situation would be different today,” he said.

He added that due to the shortage of water in rivers, Sindh had been suffering a decrease of water by 17 per cent and Punjab by 22 per cent.

Neither the minister nor the secretary came to represent Sindh in the National Assembly committee, Zaman claimed.

He asked Siyal to ask his superiors why dams were not built in the past. “The incompetent people of Sindh do not believe in the construction of dams. Improper statements can be expected from them.”

Zaman negated the Sindh government’s stance that the province was getting water less than its due share. Provinces face water scarcity due to climate change, he said and added that despite the water shortage, Sindh was being given more water than other provinces.

“Water from Balochistan is also being supplied to Sindh,” the PTI MPA maintained.

He said Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) ministers were second to none in spreading negative propaganda. “Instead of working on its own, the Sindh government obstructs the work of others,” he remarked. He stated that the people of Sindh were being incited against the federal government through negative propaganda and the PPP had always played politics by playing the Sindh card. “If Sindh’s rights had been abused, we would have taken a stance before the PPP,” Zaman said.

Extortion

Meanwhile, PTI Karachi Vice President Subhan Ali Sahil said the Sindh government had heated up the market of bribery and was looting traders and people of the city in the guise of implementing Covid-19 standard operating procedures.

“Under the guise of closing shops in the city, the police and the district administration are taking huge bribes from shopkeepers and allowing them to open,” Sahil alleged.

He said the Sindh government did not take any practical steps for people’s relief during the coronavirus pandemic and only squandered public funds.

He appealed to the chief justice to take notice of the ongoing looting in the name of lockdown in Karachi.