- JI leader says India stealing Pakistan’s share of river water
PESHAWAR: Jamaat-e-Islami leader Senator Sirajul Haq on Wednesday said that Pakistan would soon become a desert if the government remained indifferent towards India’s increasing water aggression.
Talking to journalists, he said that the construction of the Kishanganga Dam and stealing Pakistan’s share of river water by India in violation of the Indus Water Treaty had caused acute water shortage in the country.
He said that the government had done nothing to overcome the water crisis or to get its share of river water from India due to which Punjab was turning into desert. He said that the country’s economy and agriculture mainly depended on the river water.
“If the supply of the water in the Indus River was reduced, the people living on both the sides of the river would face great difficulties,” Siraj said. At present, Pakistan was among the countries which were facing water shortage. He said that dependence on a single river was bound to cause a serious problem.
He said that Pakistan had the capacity to store 114 million acres feet of water which had now reduced to 95 million acre-feet but the government was not giving any importance to the issue. Siraj said that the government was pumping out groundwater without any serious thought which could pose a grave situation.
The Jamaat leader said that it was unfortunate that the government had not appointed the chairman of the Council of Islamic Ideology (CCI) during the last nine months which shows the non-serious attitude of the government.
