Railway traffic on a track near the city of Khairpur of Sindh was restored after activists from some nationalist matches blocked a section on Sunday in their ongoing agitation against the very protected plan to build six new channels on the Indo River.
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 Sindh Assembly also approved a unanimous resolution against the project in March.
The last months have seen the national protests of political parties, including the ally of the ruling coalition and the residents against the proposed project.
“The road was blocked around 11:30 am in the area of the city of Khairpur, but that block has been raised and the normal flow of rail traffic has been restored,” said Imran, a railway official in the Sukkur main controllers office. Dawn.com.
The blockade of the railwayway was reported in the Sukkur division and not in the limits of the Karachi division, which end in Tando Adam in the Sanghar district, according to Karachi’s deputy chief controller, Shakeel Memon.
The protest on the tracks was directed by Amjad Mahesar, senior vice president of Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (Bashir), in response to the call of his match for a closing blow to Sindh.
Maesar told him Dawn.com“The roads in Luqman Railway Crossing remained closed for about three hours by party activists under their leadership and the blockade ended after protest.”
He described the strike as “successful”, claiming that the city of Khairpur remained “completely closed.”
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.
Additional attorney general Mohsin Qadir Shahwani has informed the Sindh Superior Court that the work in the Canales project had been arrested in accordance with its previous restriction order.
On April 18, the president of the PPP, Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, threatened the ruling PML-N against continue along the path of confrontation with Sindh on the issue of new channels in the Indo River.
While heading to a great public meeting at Hatri Bypass Ground on Friday night, he said his party would not go with the federal government if he did not file the controversial project, even after recognizing the objections of the PPP.
Finally, the federal and Sindh governments agreed today to solve the problem of the contentious channel project through dialogue, after the president of PML-N, Nawaz Sharif, and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif ordered that the conversations be held on the matter.
The controversy of the channels has deepened with Sindh’s prime minister, Murad Shah, strongly criticizing the Punjab government for increasing the water that deviates to the Link TP channel. The Indo River System Authority (IRSA) claimed to have made all decisions according to the law.
The lawyers continue sitting, blockway block in Khairpur
Meanwhile, the lawyers also blocked the national road in Babarloi Bypass in the Khairpur district, continuing their indefinite seated against the Canals project that began on April 18.
The demonstration was being organized in response to the call of the Karachi Bar Association (KBA), which was supported by the Law Association of the Superior Court of Sindh (SHCBA) and the bodies of other lawyers.
The protest was being directed jointly by the president of the KBA, Aamir Nawaz Warraich, the president of the Bar Association of the Hyderabad District (HDBA), Ashar Majeed Khokhar, the secretary general of HDBA Masood Rasool Memon, the president of SHCBA Hyderabad, Ayaz Tunio and other associations of lawyers.
Tunio de Shcba said that the railway was blocked by some protesters, but then the protest ended on the road, which allowed rail traffic to continue. “People asked the protesters that training passengers would suffer a lot, therefore, they finished blocking,” Tunio told Tunio Dawn.com by phone.
Also present at the protest site, said Khokhar de HDBA Dawn.com In a phone call: “Our permanent committee of 10 members, of which I am also a member, will meet tomorrow to decide whether to block the railway route or resort to a boycott of judicial procedures.”
He affirmed that the lawyers were facilitating the approval of ambulances and vehicles for women and families during the ongoing sitting. “They are being allowed [to pass] safely. They are only trucks and other vehicles that transport goods that have no way on the road, ”said Khokhar.
