Mumtaz Ali Bhutto, chairman of the Sindh National Front, has accused Punjab of stealing Sindh’s irrigation water from Chashma and Taunsa link canals. He told visitors in Mirpur Bhutto that Punjab has misappropriated Sindh’s water by constructing 19 barrages on the Indus River while not paying heed to the President’s orders of closing the said canals.

Bhutto expressed concern over the excesses of Punjab, which he termed ‘out of the control of constitution.’ He referred to MQM’s chief Altaf Hussain’s recent warning that if Sindhis continued to support a government that did not protect their property, they would lose control of their very own land. Bhutto also claimed that the federal government had lost writ in the provinces. An obvious example of this was the government’s failure in restoring the commissioner system and getting Sindhi natives admitted in Karachi’s educational institutions.

Mumtaz Ali Bhutto’s discontent over the role of Punjab in using the country’s resources is one of the series of such complaints, coming from all provinces of the country, especially from Balochistan where the local leaders are extremely unhappy with Punjab’s share in the natural gas that is mined from Balochistan. Sadly, the leaders from different nationalist parties do not sit to talk with their federal government counterparts to work out a mutually agreeable solution to this issue.