HYDERABAD - The Grand Democratic Alliance’s General Secretary Ayaz Latif Palijo has blamed Pakistan Peoples Party’s Sindh government for using the irrigation department as a tool to maintain its political control in the province.

In a statement issued here on Sunday, Palijo said the Sindh Irrigation Department and Sindh Irrigation and Drainage Authority (SIDA) were conniving with the ruling party’s politicians to steal share of water of the poor farmers.

“If a mechanism of just distribution of water is put in place, even the tail end areas won’t complain of water shortage,” he contended.

He said the existing water politics being perpetrated by the ruling party was destroying the province’s agriculture sector. The GDA’s leader reiterated the charge that if free and fair elections were held in 2018, the PPP would not have returned to the power in Sindh.

“The party has been expelled by the voters of the 3 provinces of Pakistan. It would have met the same fate in Sindh had it not been given the oxygen of the power,” he maintained.

Palijo expressed hope that the menace of corruption could be eradicated by educating the youth. “The youth can bring about a real change in the country,” he said.