Message forwarded from People’s Rigths Movement

 Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum Seminar Disrupted

· A seminar on ‘Below Kotri water flows’ was planned by the Pakistan
Fisherfolk Forum and Action Aid Pakistan in the Dreamland Motel on
December 28^th, the arrangements for which had been made many weeks in
advance.

· On arrival in Islamabad, dozens of activists of the PFF arrived at
Dreamland Motel on the evening of December 27^th as planned. They were
told that there were insufficient rooms for them and that they could not
stay in the motel as planned. While this severe inconvience was dealt
with by the organisers, they could not have foreseen what was to
transpire next.

· On the morning of the 28^th, the hotel management locked the rooms to
the hall in which the seminar was supposed to be held and told the
organisers that the intelligence agencies had prohibited the hotel from
hosting the event.

· A demonstration was subsequently held outside the hotel to protest
this arbitrary disruption. The protestors were addressed by PFF
chairperson Mohammad Ali Shah, Dr. Qadir Magsi, Hameed Asghar Shaheen,
Aziz Narejo, Khadim Hussain, Mushtaq Gadi, Aasim Sajjad, and numerous
other activists.

· This action demonstrates the government’s complete lack of tolerance
for democratic debate - papers were to be presented at the seminar in
which technical, social, economic, political and cultural perspectives
were expected to be raised.

· We firmly believe that this action is a reflection of the dictatorial
manner in which the government has bulldozed Water Vision 2025 on the
people of Pakistan.

· In this regard, we invite you to be part of a protest demonstration
to be held tomorrow (Thursday, 29 December) at 12pm in front of the
offices of the World Bank and Asian Development Bank to demand
withdrawal of funds for mega water projects that are imposed upon the
country by diktat.

· We believe that similar repressive measures may be employed by the
government during tomorrow’s demonstration. Therefore it is imperative
that the demonstration be attended and supported by as wide a
cross-section of people as possible, particularly because dozens of
fisherfolk will be present and they are likely to be subject to severe
harassment and intimidation.

Daily Times (Lahore)
December 29, 2005

 Demo After KBD Moot Cancelled

Staff Report

ISLAMABAD: A demonstration was held outside a local hotel to protest the
hotel administration’s decision to cancel a seminar on Kalabagh Dam
arranged by the ActionAid, Pakistan, and Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum (PFF)
to hold a seminar on Kalabagh Dam.

Fishermen from the Indus delta in Sindh, water rights activists, people
from the Siraiki belt, NWFP and Balochistan, and political activists
from across the country attended the demonstration. The hotel
administration cited pressure from the authorities as the reason for its
decision. The protesters held banners and flags and shouted slogans
flaying state repression and the government’s water policy.

Muhammad Ali Shah, the PFF chairperson, said that the people of Sindh
and other oppressed people in Pakistan had been resisting the
“dictatorial policies of the state for decades and would continue to do
so despite efforts to suppress their voices”.

He said that the people of Sindh would never allow the Kalabagh Dam and
any other mega water project that denied them their “historic right to
the water of the Indus River”. He said that the PFF, ActionAid-Pakistan
and other supporters would organise another protest demonstration on
Thursday in front of the offices of the World Bank and the Asian
Development Bank to demand the withdrawal of funds for the Water Vision
2025.

Taj Haider, the information secretary of the Pakistan People’s Party,
said that by refusing to allow a peaceful seminar, the state had proved
that it had no tolerance for democratic dissent. He said that the state
was unwilling to concede that the rationale for projects such as the
Kalabagh Dam and the Greater Thal Canal was “completely nonsensical”.

Dr Qadir Magsi, chairman of the Sindh Taraqqi Pasand Party, said that
state functionaries had based their entire case for building mega water
projects on “lies and the Sindhi nation has rejected these lies”.