LARKANA/SUKKUR/HYDER­ABAD/NAWABSHAH/THATTA: Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) on Sunday organised big rallies in different towns of Sindh and held sit-ins at Sukkur Barrage, Larkana-Khairpur Bridge, Kotri Barrage and several other such places to declare the federal plan of drawing six canals from the Indus unacceptable.

It asked the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) — the key component of the ruling coalition at the Centre — to stand with the masses by parting ways with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

JUI-F Sindh General Secretary Maulana Rashid Mahmood Soomro addressed the events in Larkana, Khairpur, Nawabshah and Kotri. Other party leaders, including Maulana Nasir Mahmood Soomro, Dr A.G. Ansari, Maulana Abdul Qayyum Halejvi, Mufti Saud Afzal Halejvi, Maulana Mohammad Sualeh Indhar, Maulana Abdullah Mehar, Maulana Abdul Hameed Mehar, Syed Waliullah Shah Amroti, Maulana Mohammad Tayyeb Mekho and Agha Taimoor Pathan also spoke to the participants at different places.

At the venue of Larkana-Khairpur Bridge sit-in, Maulana Soomro categorically rejected the canals project and criticised the PPP for not heeding to Sindh people’s demand on the water issue. It should part ways with the PML-N-led coalition to demonstrate its sincerity, the maulana said.

Asks PPP to quit coalition if PM does not agree to shelve the plan; warns of ‘Punjab blockade’ next

Alluding to PPP’s recent protests and sit-ins against the canals project, the JUI-F leader said: “PPP is befooling people”. He said PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari should ask the prime minister in clear terms to shelve the project else his party would quit the coalition.

“Sindh is already facing 55pc water shortage,” he said, adding that he was confident that Indus water would be stolen and diverted in order to keep to the Cholistan canal flowing.

He accused Punjab of having captured Sindh’s natural resources and jobs and now appeared inclined to rob it of its water. “This will not be allowed to happen,” he declared in unequivocal terms.

He reminded the rulers that a strong Sindh meant a strong Pakistan.

He noted that PPP was enjoying all key positions at the Centre and in two provinces. He accused it of having sold out the Indus River while sitting in assemblies.

Commenting on Bilawal’s certain slogans during his April 4 speech in Garhi Khuda Bakhsh Bhutto, Maulana Soomro challenged him to hold public meetings in Mastung, Qalat, Khuzdar, Wana and Wazirstan with the slogan of ‘Pakistan Khappy’ and hold public meetings in Sindh with the slogan of ‘Save Sindh-Save Sindhu [river]’.

Maulana Soomro also declared that “99.99pc nationalists are pro-Pakistan”.

He said today (Sunday), the JUI-F blocked seven bridges over Indus to press the rulers to reverse the decision of drawing six canals from the Indus. He warned that if it was not done, the JUI-F would block Sindh-Punjab border and would also not allow even a single container to move to Punjab from Karachi.

Earlier, the protesters reached the Larkana-Khairpur Bridge after covering eight kilometres from Larkana city to hold the sit-in. They were carrying banners and placards inscribed with slogans against the canals project.

Their leaders said such sit-ins were being held on Guddu Barrage, Sukkur Barrage, Dadu-Moro Bridge, Kotri (Jamshoro) Bridge, Amri Bridge and Thatta-Sujawal Bridge.

At the venue of Sukkur Barrage sit-in, Maulana Rashid Mahmood Soomro said that by pursuing divisive policies, the federation was weakening the provinces and the country. This could not ensure a strong federation, he warned.

Criticising the Cholistan irrigation plan, he said this would benefit only billionaires and the wealthy.

He criticised Bilawal for creating an impression that Sindhi nationalists were not patriot Pakistanis. Maulana Soomro retorted that almost all these nationalists, Pir Pagara and JUI-F leaders were patriot Pakistanis. “While fighting for this country, our leaders Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri and Akram Khan Durrani had fallen victim to terrorist attacks. Our scholars, Mufti Nizamuddin Shamzai, Mufti Jameel and Allama Khalid Mehmood Soomro were martyred in the same struggle. Our party had lifted 90 coffins at one time to pay the price of standing with this nation.”

He remarked that wrong decisions being taken by those sitting in Islamabad had actually weakened the country. “Today, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is fed up with you, Balochistan is rebelling and the entire Sindh is in a state of protest,” he observed addressing the rulers.

In Nawabshah and Naushahro Feroze districts, JUI-F activists blocked roads and held protest demonstrations on a call given by their leaders.

A large number of JUI-F workers and supporters gathered at Amri Bridge in Qazi Ahmed and held a sit-in.

They were carrying party flags and placards, and were chanting slogans against the canals project.

Maulana Rashid Mehmood Soomro spoke to them and claimed that the PPP had actually struck a deal with federal authorities on the canals project.

A similar sit-in was held on Dadu-Moro Bridge and different other places in Kandiaro and Naushahro Feroze.

JUI-F activists and supporters also gathered at Al Manzar in Jamshoro on Sunday and staged a sit in for four hours at the Kotri Barrage, disrupting normal flow of vehicular traffic.

Addressing them, Maulana Rashid Mahmood Soomro urged them to be ready for a long struggle on this issue. He said that party workers could face imprisonment in this movement as well and might lose their lives for this cause.

Party workers replied in affirmative while raising full throated slogans.

Soomro said that this project would endanger Sindh’s water, agriculture and environment and this would not be accepted at any cost. He said Pakistan was passing through critical period where situation in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was highly unstable. He said that this canals project was being planned to steal Sindh’s water. He said people were on roads across Sindh against this plan.

The sit-in on Darya Khan Bridge, in Thatta district, was led by JUI-F’s central leader Maulana Abdul Razzaq Lakho along with its Sindh senior vice-president Maulana Mohammad Sualeh al-Haddad, Haji Abdul Malik Talpur, Maulana Fateh Mohammad Mughairi and others.

Several hundred participants blocked the Thatta-Sajawal road and kept raising slogans against the canals project during the course of the sit-in.

Published in Dawn, April 7th, 2025