Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Sindh President Haleem Adil Sheikh on Thursday strongly criticised the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), alleging that the province was facing a severe water crisis due to what he described as the ruling party’s incompetence and politically motivated policies.
Reacting to reports that Sindh was receiving 48 per cent less water than its allocated share, Sheikh said the shortage was pushing the province towards an agricultural disaster, with fertile land turning barren and standing crops drying up due to insufficient irrigation.
Sheikh said that Sindh was an agricultural province and that agriculture remained the backbone of its economy. He regretted that the PPP had ‘completely failed’ to protect the province’s resources and public interests. He further alleged that the ruling party had consistently compromised Sindh’s resources for political gains and had left the people of the province ‘abandoned.’
The PTI leader further claimed that the PPP was misleading the public through ‘mere rhetoric’ on the water crisis, adding that, in practical terms, the PPP and the PML-N had become ‘two sides of the same coin.’
Sheikh alleged that the PPP had repeatedly compromised Sindh’s resources for political purposes and accused President Asif Ali Zardari of ‘betraying Sindh’ by allowing controversial canal projects, which, according to him, had worsened the water crisis.
He said PTI had launched protests across Sindh under the banner of the Save Indus River Movement against the controversial canals and vowed that the struggle against water shortages would continue.
The PTI leader warned that reduced water supply to Sindh could further aggravate Karachi’s water crisis, claiming that nearly 80 per cent of the city’s residents were already facing water shortages. He added that the crisis had severely affected both urban and rural populations.
Sheikh further alleged that even the available water was being sold for money, while farmers across Sindh were staging protests over the lack of irrigation supply. He demanded immediate measures to ensure water delivery to tail-end farmers.
Calling for the implementation of the 1991 Water Accord, Sheikh said Sindh must receive its constitutional share of water and warned that any ‘deal-making’ over the province’s water rights would not be acceptable.
He also urged the PPP to withdraw from the federal government and join the people of Sindh in protest if it had not compromised on the province’s interests.