LAHORE:
Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) should not shy away from sacrificing its governments in the Centre – as an ally – and Sindh if the issue of canal construction was not addressed, warned the party’s central Punjab general secretary Syed Hasan Murtaza.
Hasan Murtaza said the construction of new canals would weaken the country and undermine the federation.
Speaking to the media on Sunday, he said that the water issue was not confined to Sindh and Punjab, but was a national concern. “In fact, the problem of water is greater in Punjab than in Sindh. We are already receiving 20 per cent less water from IRSA,” he said.
Murtaza further noted that this was the fourth crop cycle in which the Punjab government was depriving farmers of their due share. “If no new water reservoir is constructed, then from where will the water come for the new canals?” he questioned.
“One of the five reservoirs is already empty from which one will it be filled?”
He stressed that the government had pushed the country into such a serious crisis that agricultural lands risked becoming barren.
“If the water level fluctuates, it leads to murders, destruction and even divorces,” he said, adding that the PPP could not afford to remain silent on the issue under any circumstances.
“This is about the common man’s bread. We cannot compromise on the food security of the people,” he asserted.
On the other hand, former interior minister and senior PPP leader Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan said that no one province (or “brother”) can unilaterally decide the water distribution among the four provinces, even if it possesses a tank or a ship.
He said that President Asif Ali Zardari had already presented a clear stance on the issue of new canals during his address to the joint session of Parliament, while the minutes of informal conversations show that it is his consent.
Aitzaz said the government must have the courage to clarify from which districts in Punjab the water would be diverted to the Cholistan Canal. “There are five ‘jugs’ in Punjab,” he said. “Tell us, which one or two empty jugs should be filled?”
He further added that the public was then told that an institution was seizing all the water and land.
“When we raise the issue of canals, we are labelled as enemies of the country,” he lamented.
