on March 7, 2025, the students of S.M. Law College organized a protest rally from S.M. Law College to the Karachi Press Club against the occupation of Sindh’s lands in the name of “corporate farming” and the extraction of canals from the Indus River. A large number of students, lawyers, and members of civil society participated in the rally.
The purpose of this rally was to prevent the illegal encroachment on the Indus River through unauthorized canals. Through corporate farming, millions of acres of land have been auctioned in the first phase, and now an attempt is being made to seize the waters of the Indus River to provide irrigation for these lands.
Despite Sindh’s objections and without the approval of the Council of Common Interests (CCI), six strategic canals are being planned on the Indus and its tributaries. Among them, the Cholistan Canal poses the greatest threat to Sindh. Sindh considers these projects an attack on its survival and existence.
The Indus River is the lifeline of Sindh’s existence and civilization. Any attempt to construct illegal canals on the Indus and its tributaries is equivalent to erasing Sindh’s identity, which will not be tolerated under any circumstances.
Furthermore, voices raised against this oppression are being silenced, and the right to peaceful protest is being suppressed. The way in which Sindh University students’ protest rally for the survival of the Indus was blocked by university authorities and the police, followed by brutal violence against students, arrests, and false FIRs, is strongly condemned. We demand that these false cases be immediately withdrawn and that this unconstitutional and illegal act be stopped.
