HYDERABAD: Jeay Sindh Mahaz-Riaz Chairman, Riaz Ali Chandio, has said that his party will launch a public mobilisation campaign from Dec 15 on burning issues of Sindh on the eve of G.M. Syed’s birth anniversary on Jan 17 and ask likeminded people to join a unified struggle.

Chandio said at a news conference at his residence on Thursday that his party had resolved to expedite struggle on the eve of Syed’s birth anniversary in Sann against forcible diversion of Indus water.

He said that all Sindh-friendly forces that would gather in Sann would be urged to unite and launch a joint struggle on the pattern of anti-One Unit drive against six canals project and plunder of Sindh’s resources.

He said that peace had been destroyed in the province, every crime was being officially patronized, extrajudicial killings were routinely reported and murders of Dr Shahnawaz Kunbhar and Raza Zangejo were a case in point.

Chandio said that illegal immigrants were killing sons of the soil in Karachi. Two days back Zahid Mirani was killed in Gulshan-i-Hadeed, he said.

He said that Punjab had been robbing Sindh of Indus River’s water for last 77 years. Sindh’s three barrages did not get required quantum of water, groundwater was becoming brackish and the province faced 30pc to 50pc ‘artificial’ water shortage every year, he said.

He said that Punjab never respected any water agreement and always lifted water from Indus on the basis of its numerical strength. The federal government had now decided to provide additional flows for Karachi though it always provided water to Islamabad but denied the same to Karachi, he said.

He pointed out that provincial government itself had conceded that Sindh did not get water flows it was entitled to and alleged that PPP government was undermining vital interests of the province only to perpetuate its rule.

He said that Punjab was building six canals on Indus River for which work had already been started while the Sindh government was still busy in writing a letter to federal government to ask it to convene CCI’s meeting only to provide it face-saving.

He said that very revenue of Sindh, which was a major contributor to federal pool, was being sued for building the illegal canals in Punjab. If these canals were built Sindh would be destroyed, he said.

Published in Dawn, December 14th, 2024