Demonstrating against water shortage in Pakistan's Sindh province, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Sindh president Nisar Ahmed Khuhro accused the Prime Minister Imran Khan-led government of stealing its share in water.
Addressing a rally launched to protest against water shortage at Hyder Chowk on Sunday, Nisar said that the federal budget does not make any mention of the province's development schemes nor does it refer to the National Finance Commission award, reported the Dawn.
"Flows from Tarbela dam were released at a wrong time and it was claimed the dam lacked storage. Sindh needed water for its agriculture sector as millions of acres of land was getting barren without water," he said.
He, however, admitted that Sindh had started receiving better water flows now but the province still remained deprived of other rights. "Earlier, illegal Chashma-Jhelum link canal was opened which led to water shortage in Sindh, and while the federal government itself committed water theft it accused Sindh of pilferage," he said.
It was the PPP's 24th protest over the water issue, as per Dawn.
Lashing out at Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government, Nisar said: "PTI was committing economic murder of people of Sindh, which in turn would cause economic chaos in the country. This government had surpassed all limits in committing excesses against Sindh."
He said that the PPP government had got NFC passed in 2010 with enhanced share for all provinces but later a sham census was conducted to cut down Sindh's share in NFC. Nawaz Sharif government avoided announcing NFC award in 2015 while the present government consisted of deaf and dumb people who ignored Sindh's issues, Khuhro said.
He added that Sindh demanded its share in water and NFC. Amid the rising population and climate change, the availability of fresh water is becoming worrisome in South Asia, particularly in Pakistan, which may face absolute water scarcity by 2040.
According to a Washington-based magazine, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has placed Pakistan at the third position in the list of countries facing acute water scarcity.
Moreover, the per capita availability of fresh water in Pakistan has fallen below the water scarcity threshold (1,000 cubic meters), which was 3,950 cubic meters in 1961 and 1600 in 1991.
( With inputs from ANI )
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor