Daily Times

LARKANA: Several activists of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) on Sunday staged a sit-in against prolonged power outages shortage of irrigation water in the district.

Women activists held empty clay pots in their hands while demanding gas, water and electricity. They chanted slogans against the federal government for carrying out 18 hours of load-shedding and not providing due share of water from the Indus River to the province in accordance with the Water Apportionment Accord 1991.

Provincial Information Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah, Senator Aajiz Dhamraho and other leaders participated in the sit-in.

They claimed that Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government had failed to fulfil the promise it made to the people in 2013 that it would resolve the power crisis in the country. “They have disrespected the public mandate,” he said, adding that the people of Sindh were being deprived of their basic rights secured by the constitution of Pakistan.

He further said that people of Sindh would never allow ‘controversial’ construction of the Kalabagh Dam.

“People of Sindh were blamed for power theft while PML-N committed massive corruption,” he added.

He claimed that power shortfall had reached 10,000 MW, while dismissing the PML-N claim that it added 5,000 MW to the national grid.

He maintained that the federal government had not implemented the Water Apportionment Accord of 1991 and no action was taken despite protests by the government of Sindh.

“Sindh has been ruined and devastated by acute water shortage and at least 10 million acres of land needs immediate water supply to save the Indus Delta,” he observed.

Senator Aajiz Dhamraho accused PML-N of ‘taking revenge’ from the people of Sindh, who did not vote for it. “Badin and Thatta are being destroyed due to lack of water,” he stressed. He said Sindh produced 70% of natural gas but it was not supplied with even 40% of the gas it contributed to the national pool. This was adversely affecting industries in the province.

Moreover, he alleged that the federal government had blocked funds of the Thar Coal project. The country requires 25,000 MWs of electricity while Nandipur had yet to produce any electricity despite spending of billions of rupees on the project.

Published in Daily Times, May 7^th 2018.