Controversial canal project threatens to spark coalition rift?
PPP and PML-N ministers clash over irrigation scheme
STATE OF THE NATION
April 5, 2025
TENSIONS are mounting within the ruling coalition at the Centre, as the Cholistan Canals Project sparks sharp divisions between the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).
Troubles began when during a rally in Garhi Khuda Bakhsh PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari criticised the Cholistan project and termed it a “unilateral” initiative.
The ambitious project, part of the Green Pakistan Initiative, aims to irrigate 4.8 million acres (1.9 million hectares) of arid land through six new canals — two each in Sindh, Balochistan, and Punjab. Five of these canals would draw water from the Indus River, while the sixth would source it from the Sutlej River to supply 4,120 cusecs to the Cholistan desert in Punjab.
The project was jointly inaugurated on February 15 by Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz and Chief of Army Staff Gen Asim Munir. While hailed in Punjab as a potential agricultural breakthrough, it has been met with fierce opposition in Sindh, where leaders and lawmakers argue it threatens the province’s ecological balance and violates its share of water under the existing agreements.
The Sindh Assembly unanimously passed a resolution last month calling for an immediate halt to the canal construction until all provinces, particularly Sindh, are brought to a consensus. The PPP also held province-wide protests to underscore its rejection of the initiative.
Responding to Bhutto-Zardari’s criticism, Punjab Information Minister Azma Bokhari said that political speeches would not solve the problem. Speaking in Lahore, she pointed out that if the PPP chairman could find time to engage with the federal government over provincial budget allocations, he should also engage in dialogue over the canal dispute.
Bokhari further said that President Asif Ali Zardari had approved the project. “It is documented, it is signed,” she said, accusing the PPP of politicising the issue for political gains.
Her comments drew a sharp rebuke from Sindh’s Senior Minister for Information, Transport and Mass Transit, Sharjeel Inam Memon, who questioned her understanding of the president’s constitutional powers. “Have you read the Constitution?” Memon asked during a press conference in Karachi.
“Where is it written that the president has the authority to approve such projects?” He called the federal government’s move to seek presidential approval “incompetent” and insisted proper procedural steps had not been followed.
Addressing speculations about the PPP’s future in the coalition, Memon clarified that the party had not issued any ultimatum. “When did we say we would announce anything on someone’s command?” he said.
Quoting Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, he added, “He said we are with the people, not with the Shehbaz government.”