NAWABSHAH: Sindh Taraqqi-pasand Party (STP) chairman Dr Qadir Magsi has warned the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) to end its hypocrisy over the six-canal project planned on the Indus River.

Addressing a protest sit-in his party staged on Wednesday at the National Highway at Sakrand against the construction of the canals on Indus River, he said PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari was responsible for the theft of Sindh resources just for the sake of his presidency.

After noticing the aggressive response of the people of Sindh, the PPP was now dramatically opposing the construction of the canals, but at the Centre, they (PPP) asked Shahbaz Sharif to go ahead with the project.

If the PPP would not end that hypocraric politics, it would be their political death, he said.

He said the life in Pakistan run because of the Karachi port and not because of Islamabad.

Observing that the federal government had become a stable just because of the Peoples Party, he said that if the PPP was really against the construction of Cholistan canal, they should quit the coalition in the Centre.

He said Sindh was an agricultural province rich in minerals and other resources and the Centre was scheming to turn it barren by constructing the canals on Indus River.

“We would never let this happen or allow them to play with the lives of the people of Sindh,” he said.

How the country would run if the people of Sindh went on a protest for one month, he asked.

He warned the government to take back their decision of constructing any canal on Indus River.

A large number of activists of the STP and other nationalist parties, including women, blocked the National Highway at Sakrand.

Vehicular traffic on the highway remained blocked for more than four hours and police directed commuters to take alternate routes for their journey to Karachi and upcountry.

Seminar on children

The Hari Welfare Association organised a seminar here on Wednesday in HM Khoja auditorium on the occasion of the World Children’s Day.

Children from different schools in Benazirabad participated in the seminar and urged the district and provincial governments to invest funds and take extraordinary steps to protect their right to life, survival, health and education in the province, especially in tribal areas where educational and health facilities did not exist.

Children on the occasion presented tableaux, delivered speeches and exhibited paintings to highlight the issues facing them.

Sakeena, Zahra, Yashfa, Amna Jabbar, Hamza, Fiza and Paras revealed alarming statistics on education and child welfare in Sindh.

They shared that an estimated 100,000 children were directly or indirectly engaged in tribal conflicts and it was not only them but also the adults who had spent their childhood in tribal disputes without education.

They said that those children in tribal districts, especially katcha (riverine), had bleak future as they only learnt about revenge and remained engaged in unlawful activities.

Those who spoke on the occasion included HWA president Akram Ali Khaskheli, Sindh Education Foundation Regional Assistant Director Imam Bux Arrisar and other officials of government department and private organisations.

Published in Dawn, November 21st, 2024