HYDERABAD, May 15: The Sindh Abadgar Board has said that the stand taken by the Punjab government and Punjab Water Council before the parliamentary committee on water issue was against national unity and justice.
In a statement issued here on Saturday, SAB president Abdul Majeed Nizamani said that if opposition to the Kalabagh dam was considered an anti-Pakistan attitude, then Sindh, Balochistan and the NWFP should be declared enemies of the country because they had adopted more than one resolutions against the dam at the provincial assemblies.
Mr Nizamani said that if the statistics provided by the Water and Power Development Authority were incorrect, then it became imperative that the Kalabagh project should be abandoned.
Referring to the contention of the parliamentary committee chairman that 47 million acre feet of water was being wasted in watercourses, he asked why were they not being lined to stop the wastage.
Saying that the water wastage stood at 62 MAF which was equal to the storage capacity of ten and a half Kalabagh dams, the SAB president demanded that the waterways should be lined on priority basis.
He said that if the wapda figures were incorrect, then a committee of international experts should be appointed to collect proper data and no dam, barrage or canal should be constructed on the River Indus until the preparation of a report by the experts.
He said that the 1991 water accord should be implemented in letter and spirit and Sindh should be compensated, according to government estimates, for losses sustained by it over the past four years due to water shortage.
Mr Nizamani expressed hope that the proposals would be impartially considered to boost national unity.
HARASSMENT ALLEGED: A goods transporter of Kotri has accused the DSP of partisan attitude in a criminal case he had lodged against two persons for assaulting him.
Speaking at a news conference at the press club here on Saturday, the man, Rana Amanat Ali, alleged that the DSP of Kotri, Sikandar Mangi, was also threatening him with dire consequences.
He said that on March 23, five persons came to his shop and beaten him up. He said that police arrested two of the accused, Mohammad Ikhtiar and Farzand Ali, belonging to Punjab, one month after he had lodged an FIR at the Kotri city police station and challaned them in the Kotri civil court.
The transporter said that later some people from Punjab came to Kotri and met the DSP who also summoned him on April 22.
He said that the DSP told him that he had filed a false case. He alleged that when he asked the DSP how the case was false as it had already been challaned, the police officer mauled him.
He said that he submitted an application to the RPO office, Hyderabad, which was forwarded to the SP of Kotri. He, however, said that the application ultimately was handed over to the DSP.
He accused the DSP of submitting a wrong report against him to higher authorities.
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