Karachi [Pakistan], March 9 : The Home-Based Women Workers Federation (HBWWF) organised a rally in Karachi on International Women's Day to call upon the people of Punjab and progressive forces from across Pakistan to stand in solidarity with Sindh against the government's controversial canals project on the Indus River, as reported by the Dawn.
The rally marched under the slogan 'Class resistance against the looting of the Indus River, our land and environment,' the Dawn reported.
According to Dawn, the rally began at the Boy Scouts Auditorium and ended at the Arts Council of Pakistan, where women workers, human rights activists, and labourers gathered, waving bright red flags while raising slogans against corporate farming, environmental destruction and theft of Indus waters.
HBWWF General Secretary Zehra Khan pointed out that the 2022 floods already ravaged Sindh and that the proposed six-canal project would worsen the situation of water availability for an agricultural belt of 4.9 million hectares. She said climate change and exploitative economic policies affect women disproportionately, the Dawn cited.
The National Trade Union Federation (NTUF) General Secretary Nasir Mansoor said that the Indus River is a lifeline for Pakistan, particularly for Sindh. It is being blocked under the pretext of water management projects, putting 4.9 million hectares of Sindh's agricultural land at risk of desertification.
According to the report of the Dawn, writer Noorul Huda Shah condemned the government's anti-people policies, She said that the elite do not care about future generations. Asad Iqbal Butt of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan warned that Karachi will suffer greatly since it lies at the tail end of the Indus River.
Meanwhile, hundreds of fisherfolk women gathered in Ibrahim Hyderi for a protest against the six-canal project. They demanded fair water distribution according to the 1991 Water Accord while chanting, "Let the Indus River flow naturally."
The demands of the rally included an end to gender-based wage disparity, protection of women against workplace harassment, education for girls and the recovery of missing female activists, the Dawn reported.
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