Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah on Tuesday called on lawyers and opposition parties rallying against the planned six new canals on Indus River to not trouble the public by blocking highways while staging their protests.
Chief of the Army Staff Gen Asim Munir and Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz inaugurated the ambitious Cholistan project to irrigate south Punjab’s lands on February 15 amid public uproar and strong reservations in Sindh. The Sindh Assembly also passed a unanimous resolution against the project in March.
The past few months have seen nationwide protests from political parties, including the ruling coalition ally PPP, and residents against the proposed project.
Responding to a query during a press conference in Karachi today, CM Murad said: “Please, continue your protest — we support it — but do not cause suffering for the public.”
Saying that the protests by lawyers and opposition parties were “good” as they were for the cause of Sindh’s people, he noted, “But they should also consider the difficulties faced by the people and take care of that.
“Protesting by blocking roads and causing pain to your own people of Sindh — is this a protest?” the chief minister exclaimed.
He reiterated that he did not mind the protests but criticised individuals blocking the M-9 motorway, highlighting that the Sindh government did not take any action against them to “maintain unity” over the canals project issue.
CM Murad said he saw videos of the protesters at these rallies preventing ambulances from passing by before being allowing them to proceed, adding that cattle owners were also immensely troubled as their goods were halted.
The chief minister was holding the press conference alongside Cardinal Joseph Coutts, Archbishop Emeritus of Karachi, to express condolences over the death of Pope Francis yesterday and pay tribute to him.
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Answering a question about lawyers expressing a “lack of confidence” in the Sindh government, Murad said: “I trust them [lawyers], as they are doing the same work as we are.”
He termed such remarks “inappropriate” and asserted that the PPP had “spearheaded” the opposition to the canals project.
‘Work on canals halted since July 2024’
CM Murad also claimed that work on the six canals project had been halted since July 2024, rebutting reports of ongoing or recent construction work.
During the media talk, he said: “Since last July, there has not been any work done on the project. Even that was not work but just material worth a few hundred thousand was moved there.
“[…] In July [2024], perhaps even you [the media] did not know that there was any such project under way,” he added, claiming the Sindh government had managed to stop the work.
The chief minister pointed out that the opposition parties began their protests in September 2024 while the Sindh government had raised the issue before the Council of Common Interests (CCI) in June 2024.
He detailed that his government had also penned letters to the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) to halt work on the project.
CM Murad clarified that the project had been stalled since July 2024 while the approval has been pending before the Ecnec since November 2024.
The PPP leader further said the Sindh government was “unhappy with the upper riparian province”, referring to Punjab, which is ruled by his party’s coalition ally, the PML-N.
“They [Punjab] created this misunderstanding by showing the pointless inauguration, which was not even an inauguration,” CM Murad said.
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He appreciated the federal government for not taking the “project further before the Ecnec”. “But I am unhappy that why they have not cancelled it yet? We want the project’s termination to be announced at the earliest,” he demanded.
CM Murad maintained that the canals would neither be beneficial for Sindh nor the country.
“We are ready to talk to the Centre on water and food security issues. But they will not be addressed through canals but by increasing our productivity and efficient use of water,” he added.
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