MIRPURKHAS: Activists and supporters of the Jeay Sindh Mahaz-Riaz (JSM-R) and Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM) held separate rallies in Mirpurkhas and Tando Allahyar, respectively, on Friday as part of the ongoing campaign launched by Sindhi nationalist outfits against federal government’s plan to dig six canals, to be fed through the Indus.

Their stance is supported by the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and several other mainstream political and religious parties.

JSM-R chief Riaz Chandio led his party’s rally which was taken out from the NK petrol pump in Mirpurkhas. It ended outside the local press club after passing through various roads.

Chandio and the rally participants kept raising slogans against the project as well as the federal authorities during the course of the rally.

Separately, Riaz Chandio also addressed leaders and members of the Mirpurkhas chapter of the High Court Bar Association to explain his party’s stance. He said that the canal project was a deep conspiracy to render Sindh’s remaining fertile lands barren. He said that the province had already been facing 40pc shortage of irrigation water due to denial of its due share as well as theft of this vital commodity. This situation, he said, had left no room for new canals and that’s why Sindh was resisting the plan tooth and nail. He said Sindh’s government and elected representatives had failed to safeguard its economic and other interests prompting the general public to take to the streets to get their rights on their own.

JSQM protest

The JSQM rally in Tando Allahyar was led by its central leader Niaz Kalani. The participants emerged from a decided point along Keeria Shakh (irrigation channel) and marched up to the Liaquat Gate.

The participants were carrying banners and placards inscribed with slogans against the canal project. Addressing them, Niaz Kalani and other leaders said that the project would lead to a disaster as it would destroy Sindh’s agriculture sector and economy.

They said that the masses in Sindh were strongly opposing the federal plan because it was a matter of the province’s very survival.

JSQM has been holding rallies and sit-ins at different places across Sindh under a series of protests it had planned last month.

It has already held such protests in Naushahro Feroze and Shaheed Benazirabad districts earlier this month.

Published in Dawn, November 30th, 2024