So, the other day, the Council of Common Interests (CCI) gathered to have a chat about some big plans the federal government had in mind. Turns out, they weren’t too keen on the idea of building new canals from the Indus River. The CCI was like, “Nope, not gonna happen without everyone being on the same page.”
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was there, along with the chief ministers of all the provinces. They even had Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar and Defence Minister Khawaja Asif in the mix. After some back and forth, they decided to scrap the whole canal project and set up a committee to figure out better ways to manage water and agriculture.
Ali Amin Gandapur, the Chief Minister of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, was pretty happy about the decision. He mentioned something about resolving issues through “mutual understanding.” Whatever that means.
The Sindh government wasn’t too thrilled about the canals project, leading to protests and blockades that have been going on for over 10 days. This has caused all sorts of problems, like shortages of petrol and food supplies. Transporters are stuck, vehicles are getting wrecked, and tensions are running high.
Despite assurances from PM Shehbaz that no canals would be built without everyone’s agreement, the protests are still going strong. It seems like there’s a lot of distrust and tension when it comes to sharing water resources.
It’s clear that the provinces need to work together to sort this out. Hopefully, they can come to an agreement that satisfies everyone. But hey, who knows what will happen next? It’s all up in the air at this point.
