- Murad says that the Punjab government has not yet started working on the Cholistan canal.
- Rejects the allegations that President Zardari approved the project.
- Exhort PM to reject the project unless the consultation is carried out by CCI.
Karachi: The Sindh -Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah said that the Pakistani peoples’ party (PPP) had strength, capacity and authority to stop the Cholistan project, stressing that this power will be used if necessary.
“We are ready to go completely to protect the rights of the Sindh, which I describe as the rights of the people of Pakistan,” the director general of the province said on Saturday by speaking to journalists from the house of the chief minister.
He added that the voice of the Sindh people had been heard and, therefore, the government of Punjab did not use the billion rupes allocated for the construction of the Cholistan canal.
CM Murad said the opposition wanted the PPP to withdraw the federal government, but the party will not follow its program. He mentioned that, at the request of the Sindh government, work on the Cholistan canal have not yet started. In addition, he noted that a small model had been developed to present potential investors.
The chief minister said that channel projects generally start upstream, but when his team visited the site in February, no work was done. “I asked the team to visit a canal near the Indian border. When they went there, they discovered that no work was performing. ”
Shah noted that Pakistan is faced with an acute water shortage. He stressed that from 1999 to 2024, the Tarbela dam only reached full capacity for 17 days in 25 years, while the Mangla dam completed only four days.
He questioned: “If we cannot fill our dams, how can we support the new channels offered by the federal government?”
The chief minister said that the estimated cost of this project was initially RS218 billion, which probably increased to 225 billion rupees, and after a more in -depth examination, the cost could increase even more.
“According to the original project plan, a dam was to be built in Chiniot, which was a 3 billion dollars project,” he said, adding that the Punjab government had declared in the RS218 billion PC-1 that they would spend 45 billion rupees in the first year. However, no penny has been used so far.
Murad warned that the Cholistan canal project was a threat not only for the Sindh but also for the whole nation, which is why three provinces – Sindh, Balutchistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa – have already expressed their opposition.
Providing a historical context, the CM noted that the idea of developing Cholistan with irrigation channels dates back to 1919 but was rejected by the British.
He explained that during the Minister of the Government of the Guardian, the Punjab government requested a certificate of non-objection (NOC) for the allocation of water from the Indus River System Authority (IRSA), affirming that there was sufficient flow of water. However, he replied that the real water flow has decreased considerably over time.
Shah stressed that from 1976 to 1999, the average flow downstream in Kotri had already dropped considerably and, in 2023, he had continued to decrease. He questioned the justification of the additional water allowance in Punjab, stressing that Sindh’s resources are already under tension.
The CM has rejected the allegations that President Asif Ali Zardari had approved the project, declaring that the project approvals come under the jurisdiction of the government organizations concerned and require provincial consensus.
He said that the Sindh Assembly had adopted a resolution against the project, the PPP and opposition parties in their opposition.
Inviting Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to reject the project unless an appropriate consultation process is followed, Shah reiterated that the final decision lies in the federal government and the Common interest Council (CCI), which has not yet condemned the issue.