Six canals kerfuffle

Federal Minister Ahsan Iqbal has been roundly taken to task for his dismissive attitude to Sindh’s objections to the proposed construction of six new canals on the Indus to water the Cholistan desert. Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Sindh president Nisar Khuhro and former chairman Senate Raza Rabbani have criticised Ahsan Iqbal for rubbishing Sindh’s objections to the project as a ‘baseless debate’. To prove the worthy Federal Minister for Planning wrong, Khuhro and Rabbani have in no uncertain terms laid out Sindh’s case on the issue.

First and foremost, Nisar Khuhro questioned where the water to fill the Cholistan canals’ 4,152 cusecs capacity would come from. As it is, Khuhro argued, the 1991 Water Accord has never been implemented in its true spirit. It is a fact that the Water Accord agreed under the Nawaz Sharif government after its desired Kalabagh Dam project was shot down set a provisional figure of 10 MAF flow downstream Kotri, pending further studies.

This 10 MAF provisional flow was intended to meet southern Sindh’s agricultural and drinking water needs, as well as safeguard the Indus Delta from sea intrusion. In a totally dishonest manner, this provisional 10 MAF is released during the summer flood and monsoon season in one go, leaving the Indus dry downstream Kotri for most of the year.

This legerdemain has destroyed agriculture in the southern districts of Thatta, Badin, Sujawal, Tando Mohammad Khan, etc., and affected the Indus Delta, its mangrove forests and ecology because of sea intrusion. Surely, that was not the intention of the Water Accord. One may ask in all innocence where are the ‘further studies’ the Accord laid down to agree a more permanent flow figure south of Kotri? Not a single one has been carried out.

Nisar Khuhro let his ‘imagination’ flow to answer the rhetorical question where the additional water for the Cholistan canals would come from. He feared that after remodelling of the Qadirabad, Sulemanki and Rasool Barrages, water from the Jehlum River would be released into the Cholistan canals, thereby rendering perennial the ‘flood’ Chashma-Jehlum Link and Taunsa-Panjnad Canals.

As it is, the Chashma-Jehlum Link Canal was ‘sold’ to Sindh as a ‘flood’ canal, only to be allowed perennial flow since 1974 with then Punjab Governor Ghulam Mustafa Khar’s help and support. Nisar Khuhro also brushed aside Ahsan Iqbal’s contention that no province would get more than its settled share of water by pointing out that already, pumping machines had been installed from Taunsa to Guddu Barrage to steal Sindh’s water share.

To substantiate his claim, Nisar Khuhro asked why the recommendations of the report on this water theft by MNA Khalid Magsi were not implemented. Khuhro raised the issue of why the long awaited telemetry system had yet to be installed and the Council of Common Interests (CCI) long delayed, constitutionally binding meeting was not being called to discuss these water issues.

Raza Rabbani, on the other hand, in his response to Ahsan Iqbal’s insensitive statement added concerns regarding respect for provincial autonomy, the Water Accord, the rights of Sindh as the lower riparian and the sentiments of the people of the province.

He pointed out that the decision to construct new canals to divert water from the Indus for farming in Punjab’s Cholistan region could not be taken by the federal government. He too pointed in the direction of the failure to call a meeting of the CCI, with no indication of whether or when the somnolent federal government may choose to overcome its violation of the Constitution in this regard.

Raza Rabbani went on to say that the agriculture sector is the linchpin of Sindh’s economy (hence the sensitivity regarding the water issue, based on past upper riparian unfair practices). The province contributes 23 percent of the federation’s national value-added, 41 percent of the national output of rice, 31 percent of sugarcane and 21 percent of wheat.

Public opinion in Sindh has been stirred by the proposed new canals ‘adventure’. Apart from the statements quoted above, the opposition in Sindh has formed a broad-based Save Indus River Movement (SIRM) that is on the march from Hyderabad (yesterday it had reached Umerkot).

The SIRM has accused the PPP of hypocrisy on the Cholistan canals issue, claiming President Asif Zardari had given his assent to the so-called Green Pakistan Initiative (under which the new canals have apparently been mooted) while chairing a meeting at the President’s House on July 8, 2024, while the PPP in Sindh was railing against the proposal.

Not to be left behind (or miss a chance to do down the present dispensation), incarcerated Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) vice-chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi has let loose a broadside in the shape of a handwritten letter from jail, which argues the PPP should withdraw its support to the incumbent dispensation if its objections to the Cholistan canals are not heard.

To add spice to the matter, there is the unsubstantiated allegation from Musharraf’s time that his insistence on building the Kalabagh Dam and taking out a canal or canals to water Cholistan was motivated by the fact that certain retired Generals had acquired (or been allotted) lands in Cholistan. When Musharraf finally backed off the Kalabagh Dam idea under pressure from Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) (not to mention Balochistan), it is believed there were a few sad faces amongst these Generals. But all this is hearsay.

The fact is that the lower riparian’s litany of past complaints regarding water sharing has now had more added to it. A federation that insists on overriding privileges for the dominant province across the board is a federation teetering on the brink of a major disaster.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2025