LARKANA: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Faisal Karim Kundi has accused Centre of complicating the water issue at a time when his province and Balochistan face precarious law and order conditions.

Talking to reporters at Bhuttos’ mausoleum in Garhi Khuda Bakhsh Bhutto on Thursday night after offering fateha on Bhuttos’ graves, Mr Kundi said he failed to understand why federal government was handling the issue in such a manner.

He said that by avoiding to take up the issue at the right forum in order to find a solution would definitely lead to creation of doubts among provinces. The Centre therefore should convene a meeting of the Council of Common Interests (CCI) to resolve the issue, he said, adding in the same breath he did not understand why the federal government was escaping from convening the CCI meeting.

He said that it had been decided in a meeting held between prime minister and Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari before Ramazan that the meeting would be convened over the water issue to move to the solution.

He referred to Sindh chief minister’s correspondence with the Centre on convening of the CCI meeting, which should be held every third month according to the constitution but no meeting had been held despite passage of the entire year.

Terming the canals issue ‘sensitive’, he said it should be resolved immediately.

He said that efforts were being made to address the issue of worsening law and order conditions in Balochistan while no attention was being paid towards correcting the law and order situation in KPK. In addition, corruption was rampant in his province, he said.

He said that people did not believe them when they talked of corruption in KPK but “today our stand has been vindicated when Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf people themselves are talking about corruption scandals of their leaders”.

He said that some ministers had been changed over allegations of corruption. It was a good omen that KPK chief minister Ali Amin Gandapur was talking about convening meetings of CCI and NFC award, he said and proposed to invite Gandapur to the meeting of provincial financial commission in the absence of a fully-fledged finance minister.

Kundi said that PTI was pursuing only one-point agenda: to get NRO for its leader. All political parties should sit around a table for political dialogue like they did the 26th Amendment, he said.

He disclosed that PTI had two chapters — KPK and Islamabad. The KPK chapter was talking against Maulana Fazlur Rahman while Islamabad chapter was seeking Maulana’s support to pull them out of political dilemma.

He was confident that PTI would not get the NRO and it would have to face the courts. He had come to Sindh to pay tribute to dynamic leadership of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto on his 46th death anniversary being observed in Garhi Khuda Bakhsh Bhutto, he said.

This year’s public meeting on the occasion of the anniversary was ‘important’ as it was being held in the backdrop of increasing calmour over ‘water issue’.

Published in Dawn, April 5th, 2025