Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Friday warned the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) that his party can part ways with it in the center if the federal government does not abandon plans for the Cholistan canals project.
“The federal government must immediately roll back its controversial canal project, otherwise the PPP cannot work with you,” he told a rally in Hyderabad. The canals project aims to divert water from the Indus River to irrigate the Cholistan desert through the construction of six canals. The issue has drawn the ire of Sindhi nationalist parties and the PPP, who claim it would reduce the water share of the province and trigger water scarcity in the region.
Earlier, during an address to a joint sitting of Parliament, President Asif Ali Zardari had similarly cautioned the government that the canals issue was putting “grave strain” on the federation.
In his address, Bhutto-Zardari maintained his party was the only political force to have opposed these projects from day one, stressing that if the government forced him to choose, he would always opt for the side of the “nation.” Claiming that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was “still unwilling to budge” on the project, he vowed that the PPP would not step back either.
The PPP chief lamented that the federal government had ignited a debate pitting “brother against brother’ while the country was engulfed in terrorism. “Those sitting in Islamabad are blind and deaf—unwilling to see or hear the voices of the provinces. We are opposing these projects on principle because the federation is under threat,” he added.
“What is the reason behind your stubbornness? We want Pakistan to develop and the federation to strengthen, but we cannot back off from our principles,” he maintained.
He claimed that Imran Khan, during his tenure as prime minister, had approved two of the six canals now being pursued by the PMLN government. He claimed the PTI’s plans hadn’t proceeded due to opposition from the PPP. “Khan, who wanted to construct the two canals, was sent home through a no-confidence vote due to PPP’s struggle,” he said.
Emphasizing that the PPP’s vision calls for equal economic development across all four provinces and declining inflation, he said the party did not want ministries, it wanted respect. “You will have to accept our demands,” he added.
In a direct criticism of the PMLN, he said these “so-called lions are sucking the blood of the people. Every PMLN project is against farmers.” Referring to the withdrawal of the wheat support price and imposition of agricultural tax, he questioned how farmers in Punjab and Sindh could prosper.
“The economic murder of the agriculture sector is complete,” he said, claiming that Cholistan and Tharparkar can be developed through “technology” rather than canals. “We have faced water shortages in Punjab and Sindh for 25 years. The crisis is real and ongoing,” he said.