Skip to main content

A wise decision

GOOD sense seems to have finally prevailed, with the federal government deferring the planned canal projects, including the controversial Cholistan canal, for now. Following a meeting between Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and PPP leader Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Thursday, the government said it will undertake the projects only if a consensus among the provinces is achieved. A meeting of the Council of Common Interests will be convened next week regarding the issue. “…[W]e unanimously decided that no new canal will be constructed till the decision of the CCI,” Mr Sharif told a joint press conference along with Mr Bhutto-Zardari.

Given the sensitivities of interprovincial water distribution, a wiser political leadership would have pre-empted the public outcry over the canal projects by taking the contentious Cholistan scheme to the CCI for a consensus decision even before initiating the work on its feasibility. That it took months of protests across Sindh against the Cholistan canal, the complete blockade of industrial and other supply chains to and from Punjab for the last week and a half, and the PPP’s ‘threats’ of quitting the coalition before the government took a step back shows that the actual decision-making powers regarding the project lie somewhere else.

That the matter has been referred to the CCI, the highest constitutional forum empowered to decide disputes that involve the provinces, indicates that the doors to an arbitrary decision on the scheme may have been closed. So far so good. But the pause does not necessarily guarantee that the project has been cancelled altogether. Still, the canal plan is unlikely to move forward anytime soon, at least not unless a solid, independent technical study of the proposed water channel is carried out and the buy-in of all the provinces, especially Sindh, achieved.

This development should be enough to reassure the protesters who should lift the blockade of the national highway to allow smooth cargo and passenger movement between Sindh and Punjab. No doubt the episode has left a bad taste in the mouth and had added to the federation’s strain. However, the PM’s word on the issue should be respected. One also hopes that the PML-N will do better and avoid such controversies in the future.

Published in Dawn, April 26th, 2025



from The Dawn News - Home https://ift.tt/Q9mahof
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Explainer: Iran’s economy faces rocky road amid rising prices, falling currency

Iran’s economy is going through one of its most difficult periods in years, fueled by sanctions, high inflation, and a significant drop in the value of the national currency, the rial. These pressures have had a direct impact on living standards and have also fueled recent protests. The protests began on Dec. 28 in commercial hubs in the capital Tehran, when shopkeepers, merchants, and small business owners staged strikes and demonstrations to protest soaring inflation, the collapsing rial, and deteriorating economic conditions, and have since grown into nationwide anti-government expressions of discontent involving workers, students, and others across multiple cities. The Iranian president said Sunday that his government is determined to address Iran’s economic problems amid the protests. Masoud Pezeshkian said the government admits to “shortcomings and problems” and is working hard to alleviate the people’s concerns, especially on the economy. Currency collapse at the centre of c...
Post a Comment
Read more

Mitchell Starc surpasses Wasim Akram as most prolific left-arm pacer in Test history

Australian veteran Mitchell Starc became the most prolific left-arm paceman in Test history on Thursday, surpassing Pakistan great Wasim Akram. The 35-year-old bagged England’s Harry Brook at the Gabba in Brisbane on day one of the day-night second Ashes Test for his 415th wicket since his debut at the same ground 14 years ago. It moved him past Wasim, widely recognised as the greatest left-arm bowler the sport has seen. Wasim played 104 Tests for his 414 wickets with Starc reaching the milestone in his 102nd, helped by a career-best 7-58 in the first innings of the opening Ashes Test at Perth. Starc is now 16th on the all-time wicket-taker list and could move above both India’s Harbhajan Singh (417) and South Africa’s Shaun Pollock (421) in the current pink-ball Test. After that he will have New Zealand’s Richard Hadlee (431) in his sights. from Dawn - Home https://ift.tt/xclHiX2
Post a Comment
Read more

Global reaction to potential Israel-Hezbollah ‘spiral of violence’

World leaders on Tuesday sounded the alarm over fears of a wider conflict after Lebanon suffered its deadliest day in two decades in Israeli air strikes on Hezbollah strongholds. After nearly a year of cross-border fire since the Gaza offensive erupted, Israeli bombardment on Monday killed 558 people in Lebanon, including 50 children, according to the country’s health ministry. The toll — the highest since Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah went to war in mid-2006 — raised fears of an all-out conflict engulfing the Middle East. ‘Tens of thousands’ flee: UN UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was “gravely alarmed by the escalating situation… and the large number of civilian casualties, including children and women,” his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. “Tens of thousands of people were forced from their homes yesterday and overnight, and the numbers continue to grow,” United Nations refugee agency spokesman Matthew Saltmarsh said in Geneva. ‘Spiral of violence’: US Israel’s clo...
Post a Comment
Read more