No new canal on River Indus: STPP urges government to build proposed dam in Skardu

Sindh Taraqqi Pasand Party (STPP) on Tuesday urged the government to build an already proposed "carry-over dam" in Skardu to meet the water needs of the country and opposed the creation of a new canal on River Indus to irrigate the D I Khan agrarian land.
The dam construction should be carried out at the proposed summit to store about 26 million acres of flood water and subsequently leave it to the rest of the country when there its need is felt, said chairman STPP Dr Qadir Magsi at a press conference at Karachi Press Club.
He warned that the government should avoid creating new canals on the River Indus because such moves will further reduce the water level in the lower riparian Sindh, where agriculture land is already suffering from lack of irrigation. He also opposed the setting up of Chashma Power Plant.
Speaking about the government's worries on conspiracy against it, he said "no one is hatching conspiracies against the government rather it is conspiring against itself." He termed the government's repeated calls about the conspiracy against it as "gimmick."
Dr Maqsi also urged the government to implement the Supreme Court's verdict on NRO to bring the criminal to justice, as clash between the institutions will leave negative impacts on the country and its politics.
He criticised the government for not annulling the local bodies system in the city which the former president Pervez Musharraf had introduced and demanded an immediate appointment of administrators for holding of new elections under the old 1979 local bodies system.
He alleged the government for covering up the Ashura blast culprits, saying "an ethnic group of Karachi is behind the blast and the firing of business centre on M A Jinnah Road" and ruled out the involvement of a local militant group known as Jandallah. "Both terror activities were carried out by one terrorist faction, as such co-ordinated attempts the Jandallah cannot do," he maintained.
The nationalist leader urged President Asif Ali Zardari to fight for the Sindh's rights or quit the presidency, saying that the PPP-led government should stop plundering of Sindh's resources in the name of democracy.
Magsi said that his party is eying on next general elections in the country for which it has undertaken the Sindh-wide political campaign from now. He said that his party will hold a political gathering on February 22 in Lyari for galvanisation of Baloch and Katchi people of the area.
He outlined his party's future political agenda which accentuating on supporting the downtrodden labour, and working class of Sindh and raising of the educated class to oust the "landlords and terrorists" from parliament through ballots.