Case lodged for stopping Aseefa Bhutto’s convoy in Jamshoro

HYDERABAD: A first information report (FIR) has been registered at a Jamshoro police station for stopping First Lady Aseefa Bhutto-Zardari’s convoy at Jamshoro toll plaza.

According to Jamshoro senior superintendent of police, Aseefa Bhutto, youngest daughter of President Asif Ali Zardari, was heading to Nawabshah in a convoy when they were stopped near the Jamshoro toll plaza yesterday.

He maintained that several people allegedly involved in the incident were taken into custody by the police.

A group of people were staging a demonstration against the controversial canals project, that has been postponed indefinitely by the federal government last month, said the police officer.

Charged protesters also struck vehicles in the convoy with batons, the SSP said, adding that the police personnel safely cleared Aseefa Bhutto’s vehicle within a minute.

Following PPP’s objection to the project, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif last month confirmed that no new canals will be constructed unless a consensus is reached in the Council of Common Interests (CCI).

The breakthrough came as both sides held critical talks amid escalating political tensions and widespread unrest in Sindh over the federal government’s "controversial" plan to divert six new canals from the Indus River.

On April 28, the CCI rejected the federal government's proposal for the construction of new canals, overturning the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council’s (ECNEC) decision made on February 7.

Expressing their satisfaction over the CCI’s decision, lawyers and some other political parties officially ended their protests. However, a few nationalist parties still continue their protest against the already abandoned canal project.