PPP stages protest against canals
The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has planned to jog memories of its anti-Kalabagh Dam protests as it ups the ante of demonstrations against the construction of six new canals on the Indus River. Party's Sindh President Nisar Ahmed Khuhro told a rally on Dulha Darya bridge in Thatta district on Tuesday that in the next phase of their protest, sit-in demonstrations will be held in all talukas of the province.
He informed that party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari will address public meetings starting from April 4 by going to divisional headquarters one after another. He added that sit-in on the national highway is also being planned.
"The protest movement will continue until the federal government withdraws plan to build Cholistan and other canals." He recalled that the movement against Kalabagh Dam had also started from Thatta district in the 1990s.
Referring to some leaders of the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) of Pir Pagara Sibghatullah Shah Rashdi, Khuhro said many political figures who are today opposing the canals publicly supported Kalabagh Dam in the past. "Liaquat Jatoi [a Dadu district based politician] even organised rallies for former dictator Pervez Musharraf in support of the dam."
He also recalled that Jatoi, when he was the chief minister, influenced the then Sindh Assembly speaker Syed Jalal Mehmood Shah to postpone a planned session of the assembly in which a resolution was scheduled to be moved against the dam. "Those who used to sit in the lap of Musharraf and supported Kalabagh Dam are today criticising the PPP's leadership for secretly supporting the canals."
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