ISLAMABAD: The opposition leader in National Assembly Omar Ayub on Wednesday alleged that President Asif Ali Zardari “sold out” Sindh’s vital water resources during a secretive meeting last year in July to pave the way for the controversial Cholistan Canal project.
He alleged that the closed-door meeting saw President Zardari make a questionable trade of Sindh’s vital water supply in exchange for advancing the controversial canal project.
However, PTI lawmakers also staged a vocal protest, marking the anniversary of Imran Khan’s dramatic ouster from office on April 9, 2022. Omar Ayub, delivering a scathing critique of the circumstances surrounding Khan’s removal, condemned what he called a “regime change operation”.
According to Ayub, the events of April 9, 2022, will go down in notoriety as a betrayal of democracy – a black day in the country’s history.
Paying tribute to PTI lawmakers, workers, and especially those still imprisoned, Ayub praised their unwavering loyalty to Khan. He hailed the sacrifices made by the party’s supporters, who, despite suffering at the hands of the regime continue to stand by Imran Khan.
In a rebuke to the intelligence agencies, Ayub once again called out the failure surrounding the tragic Katlang drone attack, which resulted in the killing of nine members of the Gujjar community. He blasted the attack as a catastrophic intelligence failure, demanding a full accountability.
He made an impassioned plea for transparency and justice, urging the government to declassify the reports of high-profile national tragedies that have long been shrouded in secrecy.
Among the incidents he cited were the Abbottabad raid, the Salalah attack, the mysterious crash of Gen Ziaul Haq’s plane, the Asghar Khan case, and many other commissions.
He accused those in power of perpetuating conspiracies to protect their own interests, warning that such cover-ups only undermine the rule of law in the country.
Ayub condemned ‘government’s reluctance’ to investigate the deadly events of May 9 and November 28, alleging that the rulers are deliberately trying to bury the truth by sweeping these tragedies under the rug.
In a sharp jab at Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, he questioned why, if Naqvi viewed the crisis in Balochistan as so trivial, he wasn’t dispatching his own station house officer (SHO) to take control of the increasingly volatile province.
He also accused the government of utterly destroying the economy, missing every major economic target, and offering the recent power tariff cut as nothing more than a cruel joke to masses already crushed under the weight of runaway inflation.
Ayub also pointed to the devaluation of the rupee under the caretaker government, the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), and present regime.
He accused the government of worsening the country’s financial crisis, claiming that mismanagement of rupee-dollar exchange rate pushed foreign debt up by Rs14,550 billion.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.