HYDERABAD: Sindh Tarraqi-Pasand Party (STP) Chairman Dr Qadir Magsi has accused the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) of having the same agenda for Sindh and that is to snatch its prosperity.

He said Pakistani bureaucrats, including the Wapda chairman, presented fictitious figures regarding water availability to justify controversial water projects, including the six canals.

Addressing his party’s 33rd Founding Day programme at Hatri bypass on Thursday night, Dr Magsi termed the six new canals the ‘real bomb’ for Sindh which could kill millions through starvation and hunger, therefore, people should be ready for a decisive struggle to save their motherland. He warned President Asif Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to understand that their hypocritical politics would cost them dearly.

He said the STP had been struggling against the six-canal project regardless of the fact that the party was criticised for having a solo flight. He said the STP was better off with its exclusive movement against the canals because the divide between parties was quite clear. As the decisive phase of the struggle was nearing, that divide became more evident between those who were with Sindh and those who had some ‘agenda’. The STP was not part of any agenda, alliance or politics of that sort as it considered Sindh as its madar-i-watan.

Being in the weakest position, he said, Sindh being pushed against the wall despite the fact that it used to be a land of prosperity more than any province of Pakistan. He alleged that the PML-N or PPP had a common agenda — to push Sindh against the wall and snatch its prosperity. He said that some people could be misled but 60 million people would fight till the last drop of their blood for their motherland.

The STP chief noted that the rulers were intimidating people only to snatch Sindh’s waters as fictitious and misleading figures were shared. Indus River was there when Pakistan was not founded and it guaranteed life to 60m people of Sindh.

Being corrupt, the Pakistan’s bureaucrats shared fake figures, he said and claimed that water downstream Kotri Barrage was in fact wastage, but it could be used for development of the country. “The Wapda chairman tells lies besides federalist parties and they want to break the remaining half of Pakistan,” he said.

The STP chief said that 95 per cent of people want to live in Pakistan on the basis of parity and with their political, cultural and economic rights guaranteed. “We want supremacy of the Constitution and consider parliament supreme besides the rule of law, but today parliament had become a rubber stamp with a fake mandate not truly representative of real votes,” he said. He informed that the parliament was introducing a legislation in haste to benefit certain individuals and such an approach would never help Pakistan progress.

He said that ‘not all is well’ in the country as it was facing a crisis internationally. “Balochs have been pushed against the wall; they are fighting you. KP’s people were aligning themselves with the Taliban to make your lives miserable,” he said.

Published in Dawn, February 26th, 2025