LARKANA: The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Sindh has announced rallies at all district headquarters of the province on Nov 30 to mark the party’s 59th foundation day.
In a statement issued here on Thursday, PPP Sindh President Nisar Ahmed Khuhro said the gatherings would highlight the role of the party and the Sindh Assembly in defending Sindh’s unity and survival against the creation of new provinces and the disputed canals. He urged all political parties to set aside their differences and point-scoring and unite to strengthen democracy.
Mr Khuhro said the PPP had got a resolution passed in the Sindh Assembly against new provinces, thereby deciding constitutionally that Sindh did not want one.
Talk of a referendum should therefore stop, he said, and the Assembly’s resolution should be given due weight, just as its resolution had led to the creation of Pakistan.
Those advocating a referendum should read the Constitution, he said, as a referendum is held on a question to which the Constitution provides no answer. For new provinces, it lays down a procedure under which the provincial assemblies decide by a two-thirds majority. Since the Sindh Assembly had unanimously passed a resolution against a new province, he said, a referendum had no constitutional standing.
He said the PPP-led Sindh government had protected the province’s existence by getting the disputed canals rejected at the Council of Common Interests (CCI), and that no one would be allowed to seize Sindh’s water.
Rejecting the allegation that Sindh wastes water, he said the province had been demanding implementation of the 1991 Water Accord and the release of 10 million acre-feet (MAF) of water below Kotri. Water should be distributed transparently among the provinces and shortages shared equally, he said. More than three million acres of coastal land in Thatta and Badin had been eaten away by the sea, and releasing at least 10MAF below Kotri would stop its advance.
Mr Khuhro said those who criticised devolution to the grassroots should first hold local government elections in other provinces, including Punjab. Sindh, he said, was the only province where the local government system had continuously completed its term.
He said the PPP was implementing its ‘roti, kapra aur makan’ manifesto under Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, citing the building of homes for one million flood victims in Sindh. He also cited Benazir Income Support Programme stipends for poor women and subsidies for wheat growers.