HYDERABAD: A conference organised by the Hyderabad District Bar Association (HDBA) and a lawyer`s group calling itself the `Team Asma Jahangir@ Sindh` (an entity different from the Asma Jahangir professional group) here on Thursday strongly opposed all `anti-people` federal plans.

The warned of a sit-in on Sindh-Punjab border and also on different railway tracks if the six canals project was not dropped. They also rejected the corporate farming plan, Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (Peca) and the 26th constitutional amendment.

HDBA president Ashar Majeed Khokhar, Karachi Bar Association (KBA) President Amir Warraich and General Secretary Rehman Korai, Sindh Bar Council member Ashraf Sammo, Sindh United Party (SUP) leader Ameer Azad Panhwar, Awami Workers Party (AWP) leader Dr Bukshal Thallu, Advocate K.B.

Leghari, Advocate Ishrat Lohar and other prominent figures addressed the conference.

They demanded that Sindh should be provided its due share in the Indus water.

Ashar Khokhar said that the legal fraternity of Sindh would strongly resist the six canals project because it had been rejected by the people of Sindh.

The Indus is Sindh`s lifeline; no one can be allowed to usurp it. He said the fraternity would fight the war for water at all forums. He said lawyers would hold a meeting in Karachi on April 12 where they would announce their future course of action.

KBA President Amir Warraich said that lawyers had fought the war for water on all fronts but the rulers paid no heed to their protests.

`The legal fraternity had already made it clear that these canals may be built over their bodies,` he said, and stressed that the project should be shelvedforthwith.

He endorsed the HDBA proposal to block railway tracks and hold a sit-in along the Sindh-Punjab border if it was not dropped.

He said that the authorities concerned must listen to them. Lawyers would not back out from their demands, he added.

Advocate Warraich said this project was bound to make people of Sindh to starve as it would spare no water for them to cultivate their lands.

SBC`s Ashraf Sammo said Peca was introduced togag voice of people. He said lawyers stood with people of Sindh on the water issue.

KBA`s Rehman Korai described federal government`s canals project as `anti-people`, and said those who bargained over Sindh`s water share were in fact plunderers. He accused the federal government of stealing Sindh`s water.

Advocate Leghari strongly criticised federal government`s `anti Sindh` policies, and cautioned it against underestimating legal fraternity`s power.

He observed that it was actually the establishment that was ruling over the country. He said people of Sindh would not allow execution of the canals project.

AWP`s Dr Thallu said that rulers had already destroyed the Sindh province. He said the federal government was mistaken if it thought it could get away with everything. He said Sindh`s people would not give a single drop to Punjab from their due share in the Indus water. Advocate Ishrat Lohar opposed the new canals noting that Sindh was already facing an acute shortage of water.

SUP`s Ameer Azad Panhwar accused the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) of having sold out lands of the entire Sindh, and claimed that it had now decided to sell away Sindh`s water. He said the SUP also rejected all `anti-people` federal plans including the Cholistan irrigation system and corporate farming, as well as the black law, Peca.

STP holds sit-in against canals Activists of Sindh Taraqqi-pasand Party (STP) staged a seven-hour sit-in on Hyderabad-Badin road in Tando Mohammad Khan town on Thursday to register protest against construction of new canals on Indus River.

STP senior vice chairman Hyder Shahani, vice president Nisar Keerio, joint secretary Dr Abdul Hameed Memon and others said at the gathering that canals project had become a matter of life and death for Sindhi pe ople.

They said that the canals project was aimed at irrigating desert in Punjab and rendering millions of acres cultivable land in Sindh barren for all times to come.

They said that it was a conspiracy to deprive people from Karachi to Kashmore of drinking water. Despite mass protests against canals across the province the federal government was not ready to drop the project,they said and urged the government to shelve the canals.

They made it clear that if the plan was not dropped then protest would be staged on all roads leading to Punjab, Karachi port etc.

Sindh govt spokesman flays PPP detractors Pakistan Peoples Party stands firm in its opposition to controversial canals being built on Indus River but certain disgruntled political parties, which had in past supported robbery of Sindh`s water, have now started targeting PPP, says a Sindh government spokesperson, Buland Khan Junejo.

He told a press conference at Larkana Press Club on Thursday that the failed elements were out to do politics on the canals issue to gain attention. Syed Zain Shah, who led the Save Indus River Movement, had chosen to sit with such elements, he said.

He said that Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, chairman PPP, would address a public meeting in Hyderabad on the canals issue. Was it justified to construct new canals to irrigate barren land at the cost of rendering fertile landin Sindhbarren,he questioned.

He said that Council of Common Interests was the right forum to settle disputed matters between provinces and referred to the Sindh chief minister`s letter for convening the council`s session which was mandatory to be held in 90 days. But the centre was avoiding holding the huddle, he said.

Crackdown on MQM-L men The Hyderabad police conducted raids on the homes of many Muttahida Qaumi Movement-London (MQML) activists after they staged a protest demonstration outside the local press club against the new canals on Thursday.

A case was being registered against them at the Cantonment police station.

The rally was led by Advocate Shakeel Zai, Majeed Rajput and others.

The participants were holding portraits of MQMfounder Altaf Hussain in their hands.

An unspecified number of MQM-L men were rounded up after the demonstration.

Convener of the `Save Indus River Movement` Zain Shah has condemned the police action in a statement issued in the evening.