KARACHI – Calling it an attempt to create a rift between provinces, mainstream and nationalists leaders of Sindh have outrightly rejected the Lahore High Court verdict in which the court asked the federal government to construct Kalabagh Dam.
Acting Sindh Governor and PPP leader Nisar Ahmed Khuhro said that LHC order was a plot to create divide and hatred among the provinces over a ‘dead issue’. He said that the verdict was an attack on the integrity of the Pakistan.
Criticising the PML-N president, the acting governor said that if Nawaz Sharif had sympathy for the people of Sindh, he ought to get approved a resolution against the Kalabagh Dam from the Punjab Assembly.
Khuhro said that Shaheed Benazir Bhutto had clearly rejected the Kalabagh Dam, so the PPP would never back this project.
He said that the LHC committed contempt against three provincial assemblies and bypassed the Constitution by giving a go for the ‘anti-state’ project.
Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon said that people of the country will never accept Kalabagh Dam, terming it an anti-Pakistan project.
He said that three provinces had already passed unanimous resolutions against the controversial project, burying it forever. He said that the strong federation was more important than Kalabagh Dam.
“PPP is a political party that believes in integrity of federation and will not accept an anti-Pakistan project at any cost. Kalabagh Dam a conspiracy against Pakistan,” Memon said.
The nationalist leaders of Sindh said that Kalabagh project was a death warrant for the province and the LHC verdict was unacceptable.
Sindh United Party chief and Sindh Save Committee Convener Syed Jalal Mehmood Shah, addressing a press conference in Karachi, rejected the LHC ruling and advised the judiciary to stay away of indulging into controversial issues. He said that the Kalabagh dam was not in the interest of Sindh.
Scoffing at the PPP, Jalal Shah said that federal government pleaded weak stand in the Lahore High Court during the hearing on Kalabagh Dam.
He applauded the role of the PML-N leadership on the issue, saying that Nawaz Sharif had opposed the Kalabagh Dam.
Sindh Progressive Nationalist Alliance Chairman Ayaz Latif Palijo said that the verdict was extra constitutional and it reincarnated the Kalabagh issue.
He appealed the chief justice of Pakistan to take notice of the LHC verdict and declare it null and void.
Palijo said that the Kalabagh Dam was a destruction plan for Sindh and it would barren the fertile land of the province.
PML-F lawmaker Nusrat Sehar Abbasi said that Kalabagh Dam was against the unity of the country and people of Sindh would never accept it.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Sindh President Nadir Khan Leghari urged the LHC to review its verdict, saying that the Kalabagh Dam was against the interest of Sindh.