Protests and sit-ins continue across Sindh against the federal government’s plan to extract six new canals from the River Indus, with nationalist parties, lawyers, farmers, writers, and civil society members calling it an attempt to seize Sindh’s water resources.
The $720 million project, proposed under the “Green Pakistan” initiative, aims to divert water from the Indus to develop agricultural land in the Cholistan desert for a military-managed agribusiness. Critics argue that the plan violates Sindh’s water rights and could severely damage its agricultural sector.
Demonstrations, shutter-down strikes, and protest camps have spread across various cities in Sindh. In Khairpur, lawyers have been holding a sit-in for three consecutive days, disrupting traffic between Sindh and Punjab. Nationalist parties have also staged sit-ins on railway tracks, halting the train services.
The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), the ruling party in Sindh, has opposed the plan and warned the federal government that it may consider leaving the coalition government if the project is not scrapped. Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah has declared that the the PPP-run provincial government will reject the plan before the next budget.
Meanwhile, under the “Save the Indus Awareness March,” protestors gathered in Hyderabad and announced that demonstrations would continue until the proposed canal project is completely abandoned.