SUKKUR: Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUl-F) Sindh chapter’s Shura (advisory council) has rejected federal government’s plan for the construction of six new ‘strategic’ canals on the Indus River.

The advisory council’s meeting chaired by the party’s provincial emir, Maulana Abdul Qayyum Halejvi at Jamia Abdullah bin Masood in Jacobabad on Friday, also disapproved of the agricultural tax and PECA Ordinance imposed by the Sindh Assembly, labeling them as unjust laws.

The meeting demanded Supreme Court and Election Commission of Pakistan decide cases of 10 seats, which the party believed had been stolen from it.

The cases were supposed to be decided within six months but remained pending even after a year, it remarked.

Unveils plan to hold province-wide rallies this month, jirga and ‘long march’ after Ramazan; asks ECP and SC to decide cases of 10 ‘stolen’ seats

JUI-F Sindh’s general secretary, Maulana Rashid Mahmood Soomro, said the Shura rejected the six new canals on the Indus and recalled that his party had previously issued a Shariah ruling against the Kalabagh Dam and played a significant role in opposing division of Sindh.

He expressed serious concerns over worsening law and order conditions in Sindh and observed that the people of Sukkur and Larkana divisions dared not venture out of their homes after sunset due to increasing fears of insecurity. Besides, street crime was at an all-time high in Karachi, Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas and other districts of the province, he said.

Criminal gangs in rural areas were being backed by influential figures, he said and questioned chief minister, home minister and DG of Rangers about the billions of rupees spent on operations against criminals.

He demanded transparency in governance and announced that the party would hold protests at talukas and town headquarters levels on Feb 20, and stage demonstrations outside press clubs in district headquarters on Feb 25 to record protest against the canals and deteriorating law and order situation. After Ramazan, a big march would be launched across Sindh, culminating in a rally in Karachi, he said.

After Eid, a jirga would be held in Karachi, to which tribal chiefs and leaders of political, religious and nationalist parties from all over Sindh would be invited, he said, addig that next year in the last week of January, a three-day grand congregation would be held, with expected participation by Imams of Kaaba and Masjid-i-Nabawi.

The meeting was attended by the party’s central and provincial leaders, including Maulana Muhammad Saleh Al-Haddad, Mufti Saud Afzal Halejvi, Abdul Razzaq Lakho, Haji Abdul Malik Talpur, Dr A.G. Ansari, Maulana Muhammad Ramzan Phulpoto, Maulana Muhammad Ghayas, Maulana Abdul Karim Abid, Samiullah Swati and other scholars and muftis.

QAT protests against canals

Activists of Sindhiyani Tehreek and Qaumi Awami Tehreek (QAT) held a demonstration outside Larkana Press Club in protest against the controversial canals.

The QAT and its women wing’s leaders said in their speeches that Pakistan Peoples Party’s top leadership was issuing ‘deceiving’ statements on the canals issue to detract people.

They called the Indus lifeline of Sindh and said canals project was more dangerous than Kalabagh Dam.

Published in Dawn, February 15th, 2025