Punjab/Pakistan denies Sindh’s share of water

Pakistan/Punjab: Water is life! But, life in Pakistans Sindh province has become extremely difficult due to unavailability of sufficient water. The problem has been created by Punjab, which is getting the lions share of Indus waters while denying Sindh’s rightful share. Sindh and other constituent units  in Pakistan are battling serious water shortage, even as Punjab is going ahead with Chashma-Jhelum and Taunsa-Panjnad link canal projects. It is estimated that by June Sindh will face water shortage to the tune of 54 per cent as compared to 14 per cent by Punjab. A recent move by Punjab government to control water flows and forcible opening of flood canals has triggered widespread protests in Sindh and even Balochistan.

Courtesy: South Asia News » YouTube

Memogate-fame Mansoor Ijaz now says, Pakistan’s ISI is a Terrorist Organization

Pakistan’s ISI is a Terrorist Organization says Mansoor Ijaz, a Pakistani-American who is an influential link between American and Pakistani officials.

Courtesy: CNN » YouTube

Pakistan Will Resist American Attempt To Link It To Norway Carnage

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan will resist expected attempts by the United States to link the country to terrorist attacks in Norway’s capital a few hours ago.

Washington is working closely with Indian intelligence to target Pakistani interests worldwide. This is retaliation against Pakistan’s refusal to act as an American satellite. ….

Read more → http://www.pakistankakhudahafiz.com/2011/07/23/pakistan-will-resist-american-attempt-to-link-it-to-norway-carnage/

Via → Siasat.pk

New York Times – Pakistani Army Linked, in Letter, to Nuclear Sale

By DAVID E. SANGER

WASHINGTON — The emergence of a single-page letter supposedly written by a senior North Korean official 13 years ago has become the strongest evidence yet suggesting that Pakistan’s top military officials were involved in a secret sale of equipment to North Korea that enabled it, years later, to begin enriching uranium.

The letter is said to have been written to Abdul Qadeer Khan, the Pakistani who built the world’s largest black market in nuclear weapons technology, by Jon Byong Ho, a North Korean whom American intelligence has long put at the center of the North’s trade in missile and nuclear technologies. It reports that the chief of the Pakistani Army at the time, Gen. Jehangir Karamat, had been paid $3 million and asked that “the agreed documents, components, etc.” be placed on a North Korean plane that was returning to Pyongyang, the North’s capital, after delivering missile parts to Pakistan.

The publication of the letter comes at a particularly inopportune moment for the Pakistani military. Already discredited inside Pakistan for its failure to detect the American commando raid that killed Osama bin Laden in May, the military has veered from crisis to crisis since then.  ….

Read more → THE NEW YORK TIMES

Pakistan: Blast strikes Pakistan naval bus

Pakistan: Karachi naval bus bomb kills five

Suspected militants have killed at least five people in a bomb attack on a navy bus in the port city of Karachi.

Four of those who died in the roadside bombing were navy personnel. The fifth was a passing motorcyclist, officials said. Several others were wounded.

It is the third such attack this week. Four people died when two navy buses were bombed on Tuesday.

Officials believe the same group is behind the attacks. The Taliban say they carried out the bombings.

Correspondents say security officials in Karachi, the main base for Pakistan’s navy, are also not ruling out a possible link to local Islamist groups.

Militant groups linked to the Taliban and al-Qaeda have carried out attacks in the southern city in the past.

The spate of bombings in Karachi is being seen as retaliation for an offensive against the Pakistani Taliban and their allies in the north-west of the country.

Taliban claim

Thursday’s bomb went off in the early hours of the morning in the Karsaz area of the city, along the busy Faisal Avenue. It tore through the bus and left a huge crater in the road. …

Read more : BBC

Fukushima lessons for Pakistan

by A.H . Nayyer

Karachi Nuclear Power Plant (KANUPP) is now forty years old. It is rated among the worst functioning reactors of the world. Situated on the Arabian Sea, it was originally far away from populated areas of Karachi, but now many residential schemes have moved close to it. The reactors at Chashma are relatively new. The site is on the bank of River Indus, situated between Indus and Chashma-Jehlum Link Canal. The reactor site is known to be on top of a series of tectonic plates …

Read more : View Point

AT activists protest against reopening of C-J canal

HYDERABAD, July 21: Activists of the Awami Tehreek staged a sit-in for six hours on the National Highway at Hatri bypass here on Wednesday in protest against reopening of the Chashma-Jhelum link canal, release of water into Greater Thal canal, proposed construction of Bhasha-Diamar dam and tribal. A large number of men, women and children, raised slogans against what they called a theft of Indus water.

Speaking on the occasion, chief of the Awami Tahreek Rasool Bux Palijo said that Sindh was the creator of Pakistan but it was being pushed against the wall. He said Sindh was passing through the worst phase of its history and alleged that the government wanted to destroy the province.

The government was following an international conspiracy against the country, Mr Palijo said and added that rulers had always acted against the interests of the country under the dictates of foreign powers. He expressed solidarity with all the oppressed nations of the world. …

Read more >> DAWN

Well Done Punjab/ Pakistan!

…. stealing the water of Sindh. –  Mir Raza

Killing of Habib Jalib Balouch and stealing the water of Sindh by force has damaged the old and already fragmented edifice of this country but the short heightened leadership of Paunjab have no vision to see this damage.

… They are DWARFS, they can’t read the writing on the wall, they haven’t learned from the seceding of Bangladesh from Pakistan, murdering 4 Bhuttos and sending their dead bodies to Sindh. They are racist and fascist, they are killers, that is way today Balochistan is bleeding.

They think, they can steal water and other resources of Sindh and Baluchistan. They can open Chashma-Jehlum link (CJ) canal by force but they don’t know how much damage they have done of this federation by their illegal actions. By Opening CJ Canal illegally, they are working well to destroy the rest of Pakistan. Well Done Punjab.

Courtesy: Sindhi e-lists/ e-groups, July 15, 2010

Balochs Support Sindhi People’s Legitimate Struggle for Their Waters

Baloch Human Rights Council (UK) Supports Sindhi People’s Legitimate Struggle for Their Waters

London: Baloch Human Rights Council UK (BHRC-UK) in a press release issued today condemned the acting Chairman of Indus River System Authority’s (IRSA) for the unilateral and illegal decision to open Chashma-Jehlum link canal.

BHRC-UK noted that while in Sindh people do not have water to drink forget about agriculture, this is a criminal act which shows their continued disregard and arrogance towards the rights of other nations.

BHRC-UK recognises the historical rights of Sindhis on their natural resources including waters and notes with great concern the arrogant disregard of the unanimous decisions of Sindh, Balochistan and Paktunkhuwa assemblies, thousands of rallies, strikes and hunger strikes in Sindh and demands of the civil society organisations.

BHRC demands that the Chashma-Jehlum Link Canal should be immediately closed and reiterated that Baloch people are together with their sindhi brothers in their legitimate struggle for their historical rights on waters of river Indus.

London – 15 july 2010

Closure of C-J, Thal link canals demanded

By Zeeshan Azmat

Karachi – Representatives of various political parties demanded the permanent closure of Chasma-Jehlum link canal and greater Thal canal at a seminar organised by the Awami Jahmoori Council (AJC) on Saturday.

Pakistan : Punjab ’s highhandedness on Sindh’s water

London, UK, (PR) : World Sindhi Congress (WSC) strongly condemns the highhandedness of Punjab govt with regards to water of river Indus. Despite, calls from three provincial assemblies, the members of water body IRSA, political and civil society organisations, thousands of demonstrations, strikes, hunger strikes of people of Sindh, the upper riparian jingoists are determined to overrun the overwhelming case of Sindh over waters of river Indus. The case of Sindh over water has been proven again and again on the basis of international law, historical rights and the water treatise, still Punjab govt is adamant to carry out its illegal domination and use of waters of river Indus. The current crisis has resulted from allowing illegally water to flow in Chashma-Jehlam Link Canal and Thal canal for irrigation, while people of Sindh do not have water to drink. Punjab has stored water in Mangla Dam for autumn cultivation while Sindh’s fertile lands are fast becoming a lifeless desert. The man-made water crisis is threatening the extinction of a civilisation that flourished for thousands of years. The current arrogant chauvinism of Punjab govt has taken the conflict and crisis to a new height. The entire Sindh is burning.

WSC humbly requests all the political parties of Sindh, NGOs, and civil society organisations to take a united stand, leaving all differences behind, on this issue of bare survival.

WSC to take the case of people of Sindh for their survival against the criminal onslaught of upper riparian province on their rightful waters to all relevant international venues including United Nations, UNPFII (United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues) and Environmental and Water NGOs. WSC is also seriously exploring all the possibilities to take this case to the International Court of Justice in Hague, The Netherland.

July 11, 2010

Punjab – Sindh : Troubled waters

Editorial : Troubled waters

With both the Punjab and Sindh holding firm on their stance over the controversial opening of the Chashma-Jhelum link canal, which has led the member of the Indus River System Authority (Irsa) from Sindh and the federation to ready their resignations, the prime minister has been forced to intervene. He will be attempting to pour oil over the churning waters. But even as he does so, there seems to be a realisation that the structure of Irsa may need to be altered to prevent the periodic tidal waves that erupt and threaten to cause a great deal of damage.The orders issued by the member from the Punjab, who is also acting chairman of the authority, would serve the interests of his province but damage those of Sindh by reducing flow down the Indus. To rub salt into wounds, the Punjab has now sought additional water through the canal. There is quite evidently an element of selfishness in the way water is demanded by each province, heedless of the needs of others. The battles between the Punjab and Sindh represent nothing new. But if we look at the matter realistically and dispassionately, it seems almost inevitable that this will happen. The Punjab, as the majority province, has not been known for its sensitivity to the concerns of others. And hence the current acrimony on this issue, with the smaller provinces clearly feeling discriminated against.

Read more >>- The Express Tribune

Punjab’s guarantees on Kalabagh are only “show-piece”?

Need for consensus on dams

BY: MOHAMMAD KHAN SIAL, Karachi, Sindh

– DAWN

This is apropos of Khursheed Anwer’s letter “Consensus on dam” (June 18) which states: “Sindh has been guaranteed 2.2maf additional water from the Kalabagh dam, what more consensus do the politicians want?”

It appears that the writer has not been to the depth of the problem. In the “Water Appropriation Accord 1991”, at least a release of 10maf water for downstream Kotri was also guaranteed but was never implemented even after the passing of 20 years. So what is the use of guarantees when they were never implemented in letter and spirit but only worked as “show-pieces”?

The controversial Chashma-Jhelum Link Canal in Punjab was the original Flood Canal, but many times Punjab has released water unilaterally despite a severe deficit of water in Sindh. During the deficit, Punjab has taken its full share of water multiple times by force. This can be seen in the AGN Abbasi Report.

Had the water been released downstream Kotri, sea intrusion would not have inundated 2.4 million acres of valuable land in Sindh. According to the Sindh government, almost 80m acres of land are inundated by sea intrusion. The government of Sindh firmly believes that if the situation remains the same, the historical city of Thatta and also Badin would disappear within 20 years. This is all because the “Water Accord – 1991” which was accepted by Sindh with reservations was not implemented in letter and spirit.

Recently, the NFC Award, announced with consensus, showed that even guarantees given in the Constitution were not sufficient. The same happened when the Thar coal, which was a provincial subject, was taken up by the Centre against the constitution and a notification was also issued but after much hue and cry from Sindh, it was rolled back.

I suggest that those who are sincere supporters of the dam should first demand the following:

1. At least 10maf should be released downstream Kotri as envisaged in “The Water Accord – 1991”.

2. Sindh must be given its due share of water at Guddu.

3. The Flood Canal, i.e. the Chashma–Jhelum Link Canal, must be closed permanently except for the availability of excess water during floods.

4. The controversial Wapda must be dismembered as it had twisted facts and figures to support Punjab. Three out of four provinces are not happy with its performance and the prime minister called it a “white elephant” like Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had once did.

5. All efforts must be made to save the Indus Delta as its ruination is bound to have environmental repercussions on Sindh. Only implementation of the Water Accord–1991 will guarantee this.

6. Punjab must admit the theft it committed on Sindh water and must pay compensation for it.

Sunday, 20 Jun, 2010

Courtesy:- http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/letters-to-the-editor/need-for-consensus-on-dams-060