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Express Tribune
30-04-2025
- Politics
- Express Tribune
Roads reopen as canals sit-ins called off
Cargo trucks ply on the National Highway near Babarlo late on Tuesday after the lawyers ended their anti-canals sit-in. Photo: Express Listen to article The legal practitioners, who spent 12 days in a sit-in camp at the Babarloi area of Sindh's Khairpur district, and triggered still wider sit-in demonstrations across the province against the building of six new canals on the River Indus as well as corporate farming, have called it a day. The anticipated development came about on Tuesday evening in consequence of the Council of Common Interests' (CCI) declaration of mothballing the controversial irrigation project and after a meeting with Sindh Home Minister Ziaul Hassan Lanjar in Sukkur. "In view of the positive government response and the prevailing tense situation [on the border], our action committee has decided to end the Babarloi protest," announced advocate Amir Nawaz Warraich, the president of the Karachi Bar Association. He was flanked by Sindh High Court Bar Association (SHCBA) President Barrister Sarfaraz Ali Metlo and other lawyers at the camp. Warraich acknowledged that only one of their two demandsthe dropping of the canals projecthad been accepted, and that they had given a specific time to the Sindh government to come clear on the farming plan. According to him, the home minister had claimed that the blame on the PPP's provincial government for allotting 14,000 acres of land for corporate farming was unfounded. Lanjar has promised to share the relevant revenue record with the lawyers' action committee by May 6 or 7. Warraich said the committee would review all the documents and hold its meeting on May 13 following which they expect to sort this problem out with the government. "Our biggest demand concerned the six canals which the federal government has accepted by closing the project," the KBA's president claimed. "Our second issue was about corporate farming," he said. He maintained that the lawyers bluntly told the provincial minister that they wanted the government to cancel the farming plan as well. Warraich said they had also asked the Sindh government to withdraw all the First Information Reports (FIRs) registered against the lawyers and other protesters who had taken part in their demonstrations. The Sindh police, meanwhile, have also been told to recover the objects and vehicles stolen during the sit-ins. "Our stance against corporate farming is firm," SHCBA President Metlo said. "We won't let this project be executed in Sindh." He added that the lawyers wanted to see the province's land distributed among small farmers and peasants who owned 25 acres or less agricultural land. He acknowledged that the stand-off with the neighbouring country was also a problem and said the sons and daughters of Sindh would never tolerate the fact that a country for whose freedom their forefathers had struggled and given sacrifices for faced such threats. On Tuesday morning, the lawyers action committee announced that all the sit-in protests on the National, Indus and Mehran highways were being ended except their central sit-in at Babarloi. They said a meeting with Lanjar was scheduled in the afternoon in Sukkur after which the legal fraternity would decide about quitting or continuing the Babarloi protest. Later, a delegation led by advocates Ayaz Hussain Tunio and Qurban Malano met Lanjar in Sukkur. At a press conference, the home minister defended the CCI's decision, refuting the critics who argue that the declaration suggested postponement and not cancellation of the canal project. "They should know that without the CCI's approval no project can go ahead," he said. He urged the lawyers to end the sit-in and assured them that the government would clarify its position with regard to the farming. Lanjar said he was hopeful that the lawyers would consider his request. The minister also defended the PPP and said the ruling party in SIndh and its leadership were being unjustifiably criticized for tacitly supporting the canals.
Hans India
22-04-2025
- Politics
- Hans India
Pakistan: Lawyers declare indefinite court boycott against Indus canals project
Islamabad: The lawyers' association in Pakistan has called for an indefinite boycott of the courts as it continues to stage a sit-in protest against the canal project of the federal government on the Indus River. The office bearers of the Sindh High Court Bar Association (SHCBA) and Karachi Bar Association (KBA), leading the sit-in protest on the National Highway in Babarloi town of Khairpur district last week, announced this decision on Monday, local media reported. Addressing the media, KBA's President Advocate Amir Nawaz Warraich said that a meeting of the representatives of all bar associations in Sindh has decided to widen the sphere of their sit-in protest by boycotting the courts. They further threatened to block railway tracks if the federal government failed to shelve the canal project within 72 hours, the leading Pakistani daily, The Express Tribune, reported. "We have also jointly decided that if the federal government does not notify cancellation of the canals project within 72 hours, we will demand that the Pakistan Peoples Party leave the government," Warraich said. "An impression is being given that only the lawyers have been protesting in Sindh. To negate it, the doctors will observe a day-long strike across Sindh after one or two days," he added. Meanwhile, in an interview with a local news channel, SHCBA Hyderabad's President Advocate Ayaz Hussain Tunio said that after the 72-hour deadline, the blockade of the railway tracks will start from Rohri, Sukkur district. He stated that the meeting discussed that the interprovincial traffic, which is finding some routes in the province, needs to be closed. Raising concerns, he added that their camp at Babarloi has not been provided adequate security, warning that in the event of any untoward incident, Pakistan's police DIG of Sukkur district and SSP of Khairpur will be held responsible. Meanwhile, in response to the Sindh Bar Council's call for protest against canals, several lawyers did not appear in the Larkana circuit bench of the Sindh High Court and lower courts. They said that their colleagues' sit-in at Babarloi bypass would continue till the government shelved the project. The protest against the construction of the six canals on the Indus River was also witnessed in the medical institutes of Pakistan. The students of Chandka Medical College (CMC), under the flag of the all-parties students' action committee, held a demonstration on the college premises against the canals, demanding that the government withdraw the plan, the leading Pakistani newspaper, Dawn reported. Addressing journalists, they said that the canal project was aimed at destroying Sindh's fertile land, striking at its economic resources, disrupting the ecosystem, and affecting the Indus Delta and the civilisation. Furthermore, the members of the Pakistan Paramedical Staff Association also staged a demonstration against the canals at the CMC Children's Hospital. The protesters said that it was a conspiracy and that their organisation would not allow it to succeed. They further added it would be unwise to go ahead with such a project that would irrigate the desert land in Cholistan at the cost of rendering thousands of acres of fertile land in Sindh barren.
