Saeed Ghani says PPP, Sindh govt take lead in raising canals' issue affecting Sindh
Sidra Arif
Saeed Ghani says PPP, Sindh govt take lead in raising canals' issue affecting Sindh
Karachi
Sindh Local Government Minister, Saeed Ghani, has said the Pakistan Peoples Party's leadership and Sindh government took the lead to oppose the proposed six new canals on the Indus River and revealed this controversial issue to the masses.
Ghani, who is also the PPP Karachi Division President, stated this on Thursday while speaking at the General Workers' meeting held under the auspices of the District East chapter of the Peoples Party.
He said the Opposition parties in Sindh had been unduly criticising the PPP that it hadn't been raising the canals' issue without realising that the Peoples Party was the first one in the province to talk about this controversy.
He told the participants of the meeting that PPP believed that all concerned organisations in Sindh had been rightfully agitating on this issue, but the People's Party shouldn't be unduly blamed in this regard. Ghani opined that all the concerned organisations should stay united to wage a unified struggle against the new canals. He said that a unified voice should be raised on the issues concerning the interests of Sindh while leaving aside political and ideological differences. The Local Government Minister said the people of Sindh shouldn't be divided and instead stand united on this issue.
He said the PPP had been vocally raising its objections to the plan to build additional irrigation canals on the Indus River and clearly presenting its viewpoint on this issue before the masses. He said the Sindh government had used all the legal and constitutional forums to object to the canals' project. Ghani informed the participants of the meeting that the Sindh Chief Minister had sent letters to the federal government on this issue, while the Sindh Irrigation Minister also spoke on the canals' controversy. He said the PPP had transformed this controversy into a public issue by revealing this matter to the masses. He praised the concerned quarters that had taken to the streets against the canals' project. He said the canals' project would equally affect farmlands in the province requiring irrigation water and residents of urban areas in Sindh who needed potable water for drinking.
He said that a large number of workers and activists of the PPP from Karachi would go to Garhi Khuda Bakhsh on April 4 to participate in the upcoming public meeting to be held to mark the death anniversary of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. He said that PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and other leaders of the party would address the upcoming public meeting.
