FAISALABAD: Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz on Monday revived the shelved Cholistan canals controversy, bluntly asserting that the water intended for the project was the rightful share of Punjab and should not be subject to external objections.
Speaking at the inauguration of an electric bus service in Faisalabad, Maryam took a direct swipe at her party’s uneasy coalition partner, the PPP. “If Punjab wants to construct canals for its own water, why are you bothered?” she said. “This water belongs to Punjab — to its farmers, to its fields. I wouldn’t have stolen it. I would have used it to develop Cholistan.”
The comments reopen a dispute that had flared earlier this year after the Punjab government launched plans for six new canals to irrigate 4.8 million acres of barren land, including one designed to channel over 4,000 cusecs of water into the Cholistan desert.
While hailed in Punjab as a transformative project, Sindh had strongly opposed the scheme, warning it would further deprive the province of its due Indus water share and threaten ecological stability.
Following months of public protests in Sindh, the federal government suspended the project in April and the Council of Common Interests endorsed the freeze until a consensus could be achieved among provinces.
Maryam’s revival of the issue on Monday came in the backdrop of escalating friction with the PPP on other fronts as well, particularly over flood relief. In her Faisalabad address, she criticised proposals to channel aid through the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), dismissing it as insufficient.
“Keep your advice to yourself,” she said, rejecting PPP’s suggestion of seeking international help for Punjab’s flood victims.
“Punjab never interferes in your matters, so you don’t interfere in Punjab’s matters,” the chief minister added, underscoring the widening cracks in the ruling coalition.
