Tiff over canals brings Punjab allies face to face
• PPP leader questions logic behind new irrigation project amid water shortage
• Minister claims Sindh ‘habitually politicises water distribution’, while Punjab plays ‘big brother’ role
• Sherry says president opposed govt’s unilateral construction of canals on Indus
LAHORE: The ruling allies in Punjab came face to face on the issue of canals in Cholistan on Thursday, as the PPP’s provincial leadership expressed its reservations over the irrigation project, while the PML-N accused its coalition partner of habitually politicising water issues.
Meanwhile, another ally of the ruling Nawaz League — the Chaudhry Shujaat-led PML-Q — also said it desires the resolution of the canal issue at the earliest to avoid acrimony.
The $3.3 billion Green Pakistan Initiative launched by the federal government aims to develop six canals to irrigate 1.2 million acres of “barren land” in south Punjab, but has encountered strong opposition in Sindh — initially from Sindhi nationalist parties, and now the PPP as well.
They fear Sindh will lose its water share from the Indus River due to the construction of these canals. In March, the Sindh Assembly also passed a resolution against the initiative.
On Thursday, PPP CEC member Chaudhry Manzoor told a press conference that at a time when there was a shortage of 20 million acre feet of water in the national system, the government was considering developing new command areas.
Referring to the Punjab government’s stance that the province will be using its own share of water for the Cholistan canals, he asked which canal would be closed down to divert its water towards Cholistan.
He also asked Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif why the meeting of the Council of Common Interests (CCI) was not being convened despite the demand of Sindh and other provinces on the water issue. He said that the government was annihilating small farmers of Punjab in the name of corporate farming through the canal project.
He said that the government has raised a non-issue at a time when (law and order) situation in two provinces is bad, and now it desires to spoil the condition in the third province as well.
Responding to a query related to the presumed nod of President Asif Zardari for the project, he said the minutes of the meeting on the issue were being misquoted, as the president could approve only the bills of parliament and ordinances promulgated by the federal government.
Pointing to the claim that the canals would be fed by Sutlej floodwater, he said this water would be available only for three to four months. “From where will water be flown into it for the rest of the year?”
‘Politicising canal water’
Punjab Information Minister Azma Bokhari responded to the PPP presser, saying the party must first determine whose water it is — Sindh’s or Punjab’s. “Punjab neither takes away anyone’s rights nor allows others to infringe upon its own.”
She claimed that Sindh had a habit of politicising canal water. She said that Punjab has always played the role of an “elder brother” and history shows that it has never been unjust to anyone.
Ms Bokhari suggested it would be more appropriate for the PPP to seek clarification from President Asif Ali Zardari on this matter.
Punjab Industries Minister Chaudhry Shafay, who represents PML-Q in the coalition government, has also urged the need for resolving the canal issue at the earliest. He hopes that the in-camera session, as suggested by the Punjab Assembly speaker, on the issue will resolve it.
He proposed building small dams to meet water shortages and generate power until a consensus was developed on the Kalabagh Dam.
Tehreek-i-Istiqlal President Rehmat Khan Wardag called for a meeting of the chief ministers of the four provinces to clarify the situation on the project and save the country from any tragedy due to a dispute between Punjab and Sindh about the distribution of water.
Acknowledging the first right of tail-enders to river and canal waters, he urged the federal government to reconsider the water distribution formula according to the availability of water to prevent injustice.
President’s stance
Separately, PPP leader and former climate change minister Sherry Rehman clarified President Zardari’s stance on the canals issue, saying that he had “specifically cautioned the govt against such unilateralism” in his annual address to the joint houses of parliament this year.
In a post on X responding to a Dawn editorial, she quoted from the president’s speech to the joint sitting of parliament.
“It is therefore my constitutional duty as your president, my personal obligation as a patriotic Pakistani, to caution this house and the government, that some of your unilateral policies are causing grave strain on the federation. In particular, the government’s unilateral decision to carve out more canals from the Indus River System, despite strong opposition from federating units,” he had said, adding that as the president he “could not support the proposal”.
He had also urged “the government to abandon this current proposal and work together with all stakeholders to come up with viable, sustainable solutions based on unanimous consensus among the federating units,” Ms Rehman wrote on X.
Published in Dawn, April 4th, 2025