HYDERABAD: Former chief minister Balochistan Dr Abdul Malik Baloch has said that Sindh and Balochistan provinces will ultimately have to pay the price of the idea of corporate farming.

Kachhi Canal, one of the six canals being built on the Indus River, was designed to carry 4,000 cusecs of water that was Balochistan’s share as per 1991 Water Accord and denied to the province, he said.

Dr Baloch, who is also central president of the National Party (NP), was speaking at a moot titled ‘Sindh sukain, dharti phabain khilaf conference’ (a conference against attempts to render Sindh barren and occupy its land) organised by his party’s Sindh chapter at local press club on Saturday.

He said in answer to a question: “Balochistan gets 3,000 cusecs [from Sindh’s barrages] and Kachhi Canal will take away 4,000 cusecs of flows [inclusive of Balochistan’s share]”.

He said that Balochistan’s water distribution system existed in Sindh. Though Kacchi Canal had not been built yet but if Sindh was affected by its construction then Balochistan too would be affected, he said.

If arable land was rendered barren to create a ‘corporate’ society then Sindh and Balochistan would ultimately have to pay its price. The issue should have been taken to Council of Common Interests (CCI) and the plan should not have gone ahead unless all provinces had agreed to it, he said.

Unfortunately, he said, Sindh representatives [on CCI] were supported by establishment and they did not have courage to raise questions over such plans. Pakistan Peoples Party should defeat this anti-Sindh, anti-Balochistan and anti-people project as it had shot down Kalabagh Dam project in past, he said.

He said that his party would take part in any movement launched in Sindh against the canals project. Whatever charter of demands was prepared in Sindh against the new canals or ‘corporate farming’ NP would work on it in Balochistan along with its ideological colleagues in parliament and streets, he said.

Dr Baloch said that he was not disappointed in his people because they had given him more votes that he had expected. “NP was poised to bag 10-12 seats in Balochistan Assembly but we got [only] four seats and we were supposed to clinch two to three seats National Assembly. I faced a man who doesn’t even belong to my constituency,” he said, adding [it happened because] he did not toe the line and ‘comply’ and considered people real bastion of power.

‘NP doesn’t support ban on PTI’

Dr Baloch said that he had seen political activists being murdered in past and he was witnessing the same again. No political party could be eliminated by proscribing it, he said.

He said that his party did not support whatever was being meted out to PTI and did not back plans to ban the party. In past, NAP, Jamaat-i-Islami and Communist Party were also banned and would the results of banning PTI would be different from bans on these parties, he asked.

He asserted that establishment was the real problem. Unless people and parliament were made bastion of power or the country was run in line with constitution this state would keep weakening and face political instability and economic degradation, he said.

He said that an environment of fear, avarice and opportunism had been created and no institution was free of this all-pervasive fear. Pakistan’s elites were rolling in luxuries while common man, including Sindhis, Baloch, Pakhtun and Siraiki, were deprived of even their basic human rights, he regretted.

He recalled that the fire ignited by Gen Pervez Musharraf in Balochistan had not yet died down and youths were being maimed even today and people were being kidnapped. “Still, there is talk of launching [another] operation,” he said.

He said that operation had been going on for last 20 to 22 years in Balochistan. “What [else] will you do now?”, he asked, adding he believed there was no option left except to approach masses.

NP leader Majeed Sajidi said that though Sindh faced the six canals project today but it should also be remembered when Ghulam Mohammad barrage (Kotri) was built lands were allotted to people other than landless peasants. PPP had remained in power corridors in one way or the other for past several years, he said.

He said that Benazir Bhutto had emerged as a leader after a popular movement and he believed it was useless to comment on present PPP leadership. PPP, PML-N, PTI and JUI-F were only interested in power sharing and when people demanded their share the parties were unable to get anything for masses, he said.

He said that attempts were made to keep NP away from parliamentary politics but his party would continue to strive for peoples’ rights.

Sindh NP chapter’s leader Comrade Taj Marri, Comrade Hussain Bux Thebo, Imdad Chandio, Comrade Ramzan and others also spoke at the conference.

Published in Dawn, December 8th, 2024