Karachi [Pakistan], February 3 : The Awami Tehreek (AT) held a 12-kilometre-long march in Pakistan's Karachi on Sunday to hold a protest against the federal government's plan to build six canals on the Indus River and the proposed amendments to the Indus River System Authority (Irsa) Act, Dawn reported.
Carrying placards and banners, Awami Tareek members, including women and children, staged a march from Ghaghar Phatak to Gulshan-i-Hadeed. AT's central president, Advocate Vasand Thari and vice president, Hooralnisa Palijo led the march.
Addressing the participants of the march, Vasand Thari accused Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leadership of approving the building of six canals, terming it a deliberate conspiracy to deprive Sindh of its water resources, according to Dawn report.
He slammed PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari for misleading people with false statements, while the PPP government-backed strategic canals project, corporate farming and other initiatives threatened the survival of Sindh. Thari warned that building new canals on the Indus River is more dangerous than the Kalabagh Dam.
Vasand Thari said that the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) had been made to sell the resources of Pakistan. He said that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N)-led coalition was auctioning off national assets to protect elite interests.
AT's central president warned that corporate farming would cause food shortages, displacement of local farmers, unemployment, hunger and poverty. He said such policies would strip ordinary citizens of land ownership, transferring control to foreign corporations.
Thari slammed the government for amendments to the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (Peca), stressing that these changes were aimed at suppressing freedom of speech and targeting democratic rights. He accused the Shehbaz Sharif-led government of implementing every possible measure to keep the people subjugated. He called on the government to immediately withdraw corporate farming and canal projects before they caused damage to the people and resources of Sindh.
Meanwhile, activists of the Sindh Hari Committee (SHC) held a march in Hyderabad and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP)-Shaheed Bhutto workers carried out a procession in Badin on Sunday to hold a protest against the canal project. Led by SHC chief Samar Jatoi, the march was carried out from Hyder Chowk in Hyderabad to the local press club, where Jatoi said that the Wapda chairman was making wrong statements regarding water availability.
Jatoi said that those who said downstream Kotri barrage flows were a waste of water were completely wrong. According to him, these flows were important for keeping the ecosystem intact in the Indus Delta, according to Dawn report.
He said that the Wapda chairman had said the Sindh government was taken on board about all water projects and called on the provincial government to clarify its stance on Sindh's water. Samar Jatoi said PPP was working with the federal government and it was against the interest of the people of Sindh.
A large number of activists of PPP-Shaheed Bhutto carried out a procession from Allah Wala roundabout to Awan-i-Sahafat on Sunday to hold a protest against the construction of six canals on the Indus River.
The protesters led by PPP-SB Badin chapter office-bearers Shahnawaz, Ali Ahmad and others, said that PPP, which had been in power in Sindh for third tenure, was planning conspiracies against the province. They urged the Chief Justice of Pakistan to take immediate notice of the illegal canal project and play his part to get it withdrawn to protect the interests of Sindh.
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