Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Sunday said that Prime Minister Imran Khan was trying to make the lands of Sindh barren by reducing the water supply to the province.
Speaking at a press conference, the opposition leader said that the Khan-led federal government had failed to ensure a fair distribution of water in the country, reported The News International. "Karachi, Thatta, Badin, Sujawal and Tharparkar have been facing acute water shortage while stopping water supply to Sindh at the time of sowing would be disastrous for rice cultivation and textile sector," he said. Demanding the Indus River System Authority (IRSA) officials clarify on whose orders the share of water for Sindh was reduced, Bilawal said that any province of the country would raise its voice if its right to water was violated.
Responding to Bilawal's comments, IRSA spokesman Muhammad Khalid Rana said that due to the shortage of water in the rivers, water supply to Sindh had to be reduced for some days but the situation is under control now, The News International reported. Earlier yesterday, farmers of Pakistan's Sindh province and workers of the PPP threatened to stage a sit-in protest at the Sindh-Punjab border to seal it if the 'theft' of the province's waters was not stopped.
While addressing a press conference on Saturday, Sindh's irrigation minister Sohail Anwar Siyal said that the PPP will stage a protest under the leadership of Bilawal, Dawn reported. Siyal and Sindh's information minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah reiterated that the inefficiency of the federal government has caused a great deal of damage to the country's agriculture sector and national economy.
