PPP warns against unilateral water decisions
By Asim Shehzad
LAHORE: PPP senior leader Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan has said no one brother can decide the water of four brothers, the new canals.
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A brother, whether he has a tank or a ship, cannot make such a decision. He cites the minutes of an informal conversation as the consent of the President Zardari. Such controversial decisions will weaken the federation.
Aitzaz Ahsan said that President Zardari has given a clear position on the new canals in his address to the joint session of the Parliament.
While talking to the media at the wedding ceremony of PPP leader Abid Siddiqui’s daughter, he said that the government should have the courage to tell from which districts of Punjab the water will go to the Cholistan Canal. “We are told that if we talk about canals, we are enemies of the country,” he said.
Syed Hassan Murtaza said if the PPP has to sacrifice the governments of Sindh and Balochistan on the canal issue, then they should do it. The country and the federation will be weakened by the construction of new canals.
Water is not only a problem of Sindh and Punjab, it is a problem of Pakistan.
The problem of more water than Sindh is of Punjab. We are already getting 20 percent less water from IRSA. This is not the first but the fourth crop in which the Punjab government is snatching the farmers’ produce. If no new water reservoir is built, then where will the water for the new canals come from?
The PPP cannot afford to remain silent on this issue under any circumstances, he concluded.
