KARACHI / HYDERABAD: The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) on Tuesday staged demonstrations and rallies across Sindh against new canals planned to be extracted from Indusunderafederalplan.

PPP leaders described the plan a threat to the province`s water resources, provincial rights and agricultural survival. They demanded immediate shelving of the plan.

Thousands of people from all walks of life took part in widespread rallies held in all major and smaller towns of Sindh, right from Larkana to Thatta.

They flooded streets of their respective areas waving banners and raising slogans against the `anti-Sindh` project.

PPP leaders, allies of the federal government, also accused Islamabad of attempting to turn Sindh barren by diverting its water resources to other regions.

In Karachi, a huge rally was organised outside the Karachi Press Club where senior party leaders, including Mian Raza Rabbani, Waqar Mehdi and Sadia Javed, addressed the participants. They highlighted the ongoing water shortages in the coastal regions such as Sujawal and Badin, where sea intrusion has already consumed large swaths of farmland.

`If these canals are constructed, Sindh will turn into a desert, driving millions into starvation and displacement,` said Raza Rabbani.

He condemned the plan of new canals calling it `death sentence` to Sindh, and warned that these canals would obliterate millions of acres of Sindh`s fertile land.

In his address, Waqar Mehdi said that the PPP, following the ideology of its founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, believed in strong federation but `it`s so unfortunate that the federal government is making every move that threatens the federation`.

`The federal government insists on 1991`s water accord but the fact is that the water accord has not been implemented in its true spirit,` he said. `The federal government should come out with its crystal clear stand that when Sindh objected over the threetier formula of water distribution, then why water distribution is not being done on the basis of the para-2 of the accord. When we have the forum of Council of Common Interests (CCI) available to us to decide about provinces objections regarding water distribution, then why the federal government is avoiding convening its meeting?` In Larkana, the party`s district body took out a big rally from Zulfikar Bagh to Jinnah Bagh to join the Sindh-wide protest.

MNAs Khursheed Junejo and Nazir Bughio; MPA Jamil Soomro, who is also the political secretary to PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, Larkana Mayor Khair Muhammed Shaikh, Special Assistant to Chief Minister Tariq Anwar Siyal, former MNA Apa Naseeban Channa, Dr Sakina Gaad and others participated in the rally. Carrying banners and placards inscribed with the slogans of `No more canals on River Indus`, the protesters marched up to Jinnah Bagh, where the leaders delivered theirspeeches.

The participants also included the party`s taluka and town chapters` office-bearers and members.

MNA Khursheed Junejo, MPA Jamil Soomro district council chairman Aijaz Leghari, in their speeches, rejected the canals project, and said that water issue did not pertain to any political party or nationalist outfit, but it was linked with the entire province.

Such rallies were also taken out in Qambar, Shahdadkot, Ratodero and other tosns of the district.

PPP workers and supporters took out tallies and held demonstrations in different towns of Nawabshah, Sanghar and Naushahro Feroze districts.

In Nawabshah, the rally was led by PPP`s Shaheed Benazirabad district president Saalim Zardari. The par-ticipants started their march from Peoples Secretariat in Nawabshah and assembled outside the local press club after passing through several thoroughfares.

Deputy Speaker of the National Aseembly Syed Ghulam Mustafa Shah, MPAs Ghulam Qadir Chandio, Chaudhry Javed Arain, Ali Akbar Jamali, Khan Bahadur Bhatti, Syed Atif Zaidi, Mayor Qazi Rasheed Bhatti and others addressed the rally.

The Naushahro Feroze rally was led by PPP`s district president Suhail Akhtar Abbasi, general secretary Masroor Rajper and others. Another rally in the district was taken out from Abbasi House which culminated outside the local press club.

The rally was joined by MNA Zulfiqar Ali Behan, Member of NA`s Water Committee Syed Abrar Ali Shah, MPAs Syed Sarfaraz Hussain Shah, Syed Hassan Ali Shah and others.

In Thatta, PPP Sindh President Nisar Ahmed Khuhro led a big rally against the canals project. The participants also held a sit-in at the Doolah Darya Khan Bridge.

Several thousand party and supporters from Thatta and Sujawal districts, along with their leaders, joined the demonstration.

Prominent among the leaders included Sindh Minister Riaz Shah Shirazi, Mohammad Ali Malkani, MNA Sadiq Ali Memon, MNA Ayaz Shah Shirazi, MPA Shah Hussain Shah Shirazi, MPA Rukhsana Shah and senior leaders Ashig Zardari, Dr Abdul Wahid Soomro and Arbab Wazir Memon. Addressing the protesters, Nisar Khuhro declared that just as the movement against the Kalabagh Dam had originated from Thatta, this fight against the canals would also gain momentum from the same soil.

Later, addressing another rally, organised in Hyderabad by PPP`s Hyderabad chapter late in the evening, Nisar Khuhro asked the federal government to stay away from the Cholistan canal project failing which, he cautioned, `PPP knows how to resort to protest like the one at Kamoo Shaheed in Ghotki district to force government to shelve the plan.

He said PPP was not interested in continuing its support to the ruling PML-N or remain part of the government. If PML-N didn`t pay heed to PPP`s calls, then it could lose the latter`s support, he added.

Veteran PPP leader Maula Bux Chandio, Sindh Information Secretary Ajiz Dhamra, district general secretary Waseem Rajput, district information secretary Ehsan Abro, Special Assistant to CM Jabbar Khan, Saghir Qureshi, Azhar Siyal and Mayor Kashif Shoro also spoke.

Nisar Khuhro said it was a coincidence that it was the same PML-N government that had in the past announced the Kalabagh dam project forcing PPP to protest againstit. The PPP had succeeded in compelling that government to withdraw the dam project and now when the same party had come out with the Cholistan canal project, the PPP was again on roads.

Khuhro pointed out that Sindh was already experiencing 70pc water shortage. He argued that when there was no surplus water in the system, then why Cholistan canal project was conceived. `The [federal] government should give up this conspiracy,` he remarked, and said that today`s was not the last protest, but Bilawal BhuttoZardari would lead another massive protest soon.

He invited nationalist parties to collaborate with PPP instead of taking their solo flight on the canals issue considering the fact that PPP had got along with them against the Greater Thal Canal and Kalabagh dam project.

Scores of rallies were organised in almost all cities and towns of upper Sindh districts, including Sukkur, Shikarpur, Jacobabad, Kandhkot-Kashmore, Ghotki, and Khairpur to demand shelving of the canals project.

The rallies were led by respective district, taluka and town chapters` leadership of PPP and attended by several thousand people coming from all walks of life.

One rally taken out in Sukkur culminated outside the local press club, where Sukkur Mayor Barrister Arslan Islam Sheikh, Deputy Mayor Dr Arshad Mughal, Syed Zeerak Shah, district general secretary Barrister Veeram Khan Mahar and heads of the party`s different wings spoke to the participants.

Mayor Arslan Sheikh said that Sindh had its right on the Indus for centuries. He recalled that in 1991, all four provinces had unanimously agreed on a water distribution formula and committed that any changes to the water sharing formula would be made through consensus.

He said that President Asif Ali Zardari had already made it clear that unilateral decisions on water should not be taken as it was not in the interest of the federation.

`We will fight for our water rights at every forum; we will not compromise on even a single drop of Sindh`swater share,`` he declared.

In Jacobabad, a PPP rally taken out from its district secretariat was led by the party`s district information secretary Ali Arman Khoso, city president Shaukat Ali Ghuniyo, general secretary Ehtesham Saeed Sheikh, Babar Ali Thahim and attended by Changez Khan Khoso, Abdullah Magsi, Nisar Ahmed Odho, Javed Mengal, Deedar Jakhrani, Dilawar Lashari, Dr Asghar Mugheri, Sadiq Lahar, Barkat Ali Dashti, Asghar Siyal, Agha Ghazanfar Ali Pathan, and other prominent leaders.

In Ghotki, PPP leaders and workers staged a rally in Khanpur Mahar town. It was led by Asghar Mahar, Hafiz Gadani, Dastagir Mahar and others.

In Kandhkot, a protest rally was held at Library Chowk which was led MNA Mir Shabbir Ali Khan Bijarani, district president Gul Mohammad Khan Jakhrani, general secretary Mir Altaf Khan Khoso, municipal committee chairman Mir Rashid Khan Sundraniand others.

The Shikarpur rally was led by former speaker of the Sindh Assembly Agha Siraj Khan Durrani. It was attended by Mir Babul Khan Bhayo, Sardar Zulfiqar Ali Khan Kamario, MPA Mohammad Arif Khan Mahar and MNA Mohammad Shehryar Khan Mahar, among others.

A similar rally was taken out from Jilani House in Khairpur to the local press club. MNA Nafisa Shah led the rally. Another rally was taken out from Wassan House under the leadership of Nawab Khan Wasan.

PPP also organised anti-canals rallies in almost all cities and towns of Mirpurkhas, Badin and Umerkot districts tojoin the protest.

Imran Ayub in Karachi, Mohammad Hussain Khan in Hyderabad, M.B. Kalhoro in Larkana, Waseem Shamsi in Sukkur, Zulfiqar Memon in Nawabshah, Ghulam Hussain Khuwaja in Thatta, Qamaruddin Shaikh in Mirpurkhas, Mohammad Hashim Khan Bhurgariin Badin and A.B.

Arisar in Umerkot contributed to this report.