• PPP to hold rallies against the project on March 25.
• Khuhro says the project an attack on Sindh’s wandering rights.
• “The cholistan project more dangerous than the Kalabagh damp.”

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), an important ally of reigning Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), has announced a protest movement against the federal government’s proposed Six Canals project, which denotes the initiative “illegal”.

By tackling a press conference in Karachi on Friday, PPP Sindh President Nisar Khuhro said the party would hold protest meetings across all district headquarters on March 25 (Tuesday) against the controversial project.

“The project is illegal and should not be built … We will hold rallies and protest in every street against it,” he said.

The federal government plans to construct six channels on the river Indus to irritate the Cholistan Desert -a project rejected by its most important allied PPP and other SINDH nationalist parties.

According to government sources, the estimated costs of the cholistan channel and the system RS211.4 billion are, and through the project, thousands of hectares of barren land can be used for agricultural purposes and 400,000 hectares of land can be brought during cultivation, the news reported.

Almost all political and religious parties, nationalist groups and civil society organizations organized widespread events across Sindh towards the controversial level.

The Bilawal Bhutto-led party has repeatedly expressed reservations about the project, with President Asif Ali Zardari warning the government that some of its one-sided policies are causing “severe burden” on the federation.

He condemned the government’s unilateral decision to cut several channels from the Indus River System despite strong resistance from federal units.

“A proposal that I, as your president, can’t support,” Zardari said, calling on “the government to abandon this current proposal and work with all stakeholders to come up with viable, sustainable solutions based on unanimous consensus among federal units”.

Khuhro by tackling the presses today said that the federal government has revived memories of dictatorship by initiating the construction of the Cholistan channel without the approval of a constitutional forum.

Earlier, he said, built former President Perez Musharraf Greater Thal channel through a executive order, and now the PML-N government is adopting a similar approach.

“The Punjab government also committed a constitutional action by assigning funds to the budget to controversial channels,” he added.

He noted that the project was an “attack on Sindh’s hiking rights” and PPP will fight against them through constitutional and democratic means.

A decision against these projects has been adopted in the Sindh assembly, and PPP will reach out to political parties, nationalist organizations, lawyers and civil society to form a common resistance front, he added.

Khuhro warned that the Cholistan Canal project is even more dangerous to Sindh than the controversial Kalabagh dam as it could make the province of Golden.

He said that like the PML-N government had to withdraw from the Kalabagh dam in the past, it would also have to give up these channel projects.

Khuhro added that President Zardari has declared these projects as a unilateral decision of the federal government, proving that the president is not involved.

The PPP leader urged the population of Sindh and all social segments to unite in the fight against these projects to ensure the protection of the water river water.