As it raises the stakes for rallies against the building of six new canals on the Indus River, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) intends to awaken memories of the anti-Kalabagh Dam protests. In the next stage of their protest, sit-in demonstrations will be conducted in every talukas of the province, according to Sindh President of the Party Nisar Ahmed Khuhro who spoke on Tuesday at Dulha Darya bridge in Thatta district.
Starting from April 4, he told, party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari will visit divisional headquarters one after another in public gatherings. Furthermore scheduled is a sit-in on the national highway.
“The protest movement will run until the federal government withdraws plan to build Cholistan and other canals.” He remembered that the 1990s Kalabagh Dam agitation began in the Thatta district as well.
Referring to some leaders of the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) of Pir Pagara Sibghatullah Shah Rashdi, Khuhro claimed several political personalities presently opposing the canals publicly backed Kalabagh Dam in the past. “Liaquat Jatoi [a Dadu district based politician] even planned demonstrations for former dictator Pervez Musharraf in support of the dam.”
He further remembered that Jatoi, the chief minister, persuaded the then Sindh Assembly speaker Syed Jalal Mehmood Shah to delay a scheduled assembly session in which a motion was supposed to be presented against the project. “Those who used to sit in the lap of Musharraf and supported Kalabagh Dam are today criticising the PPP’s leadership for quietly supporting the canals.”
