Sindh’s prime minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said on Monday that the president of the PPP, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, had made clear in his speech as Garhi Khuda Bux that preferred people about the prime minister if he had to make a decision on the channel project.
The Chief of the Army, the general also Munir, and the Prime Minister of Punjab, Maryam Nawaz, inaugurated the ambitious Cholistan project to water the lands of South Punjab on February 15 in the middle of a public uproar and strong reserves in Sindh.
The contentious Green Pakistan (GPI) initiative of $ 3.3 billion launched by the federal government to develop six channels to water 1.2 million acres of “arid land” in southern Punjab has strongly opposed the PPP, which is in the power in Sindh, as well as farmers and other interested parties.
The lawyers also warned the federal government that they would initiate protests if the planned construction of channels in Cholistan did not stop in a week.
Yesterday, while he headed to a demonstration in Tando Jam, the leader of the PPP, Faryal Talpur, said that his party would not allow the construction of new channels on the Indo River, warning that if such problems continued to arise, the entire province would rise.
In statements to journalists, the 18th anniversary of his father’s death, Syed Abdullah Shah, in his hometown of Wahur in Sehwan today, CM Shah said that the case of the province in the new channels was quite strong and could not be rejected by anyone, and added that PPP’s leadership had made it clear that the channels would not be built on the Indo River.
The summaries of Sindh with respect to the new water projects, including the Cholistan channel, have been presented in the Common Interests Council (CCI) in 2023 and 2024, but a decision on them is still expected. The CCI is a forum that has exclusive jurisdiction to decide water disputes.
These summaries were presented by the Provincial Government after the Indo River System Authority (IRSA) approved a contentious water availability certificate for the smallest Cholistan channel on January 17 of last year through a divided decision of 4: 1.
CM Shah said Bilawal would go to a public meeting on April 18 in Hyderabad, since he had announced it at Garhi Khuda Bux earlier this month.
