Sindh’s prime minister Murad Ali Shah said on Saturday that the controversial channel project would extend before the federal budget 2025-26.
On February 15, Punjab Prime Minister Maryam Nawaz, and the head of the Army staff, the general also opened the ambitious Cholistan project to water the lands of South Punjab 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 and civil parties protests against the proposed channel project. The controversy of the channels has deepened with Murad 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 CM was answering the questions of the journalists in the Sindh Saeedabad area when he said that the project would be filed or detained before the federal budget.
“The people of Sindh know that only PPP can stop this project,” he said, adding that IRSA gave the approval of this channel during the caregiver’s government mandate.
“President Asif Zardari made clear in his speech to the joint session of Parliament that could not support the channels; therefore, all conspiracies failed,” Murad added. “The public meeting of April 18 in the Hyderabad division was larger than the previous concentration organized by the party on the same land.”
Murad announced that a public meeting will take place in Sukkur on April 25, followed by meetings at another division headquarters.
“The party will celebrate public demonstrations against the channels in Shaheed Benazirabad, Mirpurkhas and Karachi,” said the CM.
When calling the channel project, a conspiracy against the PPP, Murad echoed the president of the Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari party and threatened that if the decision to build the channels is not invested, “we will withdraw the support from the government.”
According to the statement, the CM also inferred that some people visited the channel site and falsely stated that the work was underway.
“I sent people to the site [in Cholistan] A long time ago and I had a full survey, “he said.” I have sent more people [to the canal area]. A model of 400 to 500 feet was prepared, but even this model was incomplete, since they (the government) were trying to prove that they were working on the channel.
“This work has stopped since the period of July-August. Showing a complete section of 100 or 200 meters of 300 kilometers to affirm that the project is underway is an attempt to deceive people.”
He added that while PPP was present there, the channels would not be built without approval.
“This approval will never be given,” said the CM. “Asif Zardari and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari will not let this anti -indh project materialize.”
Answering a question, Murad said that if the PPP had been with the Government on the issue of the channel last June: “So why would the CM have approached the Common Interests Council (CCI)? Why did Sindh oppose the project at the meeting of the Central Development Work Party?”
‘It’s just propaganda’: Rana Sanaullah in the PPP posture on the channels
Talk about Geographical news The ‘Naya Pakistan’ program, the PML-N leader, Rana Sanaullah, said that the opposition of the PPP to the channels was only propaganda and that his reason to follow the problem was for political profits.
“There will be no job in government projects without consensus,” said Sanoullah. “The PPP is adopting a nationalist approach by saying ‘they are drinking the water from Sindh, it is an attack on the PPP’.
“The party must adopt a hard position since they have never obtained the mandate of their own people,” he said. “But the channel itself is not your reason to protest, its reason is the people’s party.”
He added that the PPP has no problem with five of the six channels.
“They have no problem with five of the channels, their only problem lies in the Cholistan channel,” he explained. “Your opposition to the project is only propaganda. Will the Punjab irrigating channels come?”
The advisor emphasized that the channels would water millions of land acres that are sterile in Thar.
“Pakistan’s green initiative is our future,” he said. “Hundreds of thousands of acres will be irrigated, and misery will be relieved.”
“If you want to see Pakistan prosper and improve, then we need to counteract the chantators who are using propaganda to continue their political goals,” he added.
When asked why he was discouraging people to take the statements of his ally of the coalition to the letter, Sanullah replied that the project would be promoted by consensus.
“Every time the project begins, we will sit and try to find a consensus,” he said. When asked why the Government does not want to hold a CCI meeting for the project, Sanullah said there must be a consensus in advance and express their concern that the plans would be “dragged.”
