• Lawmakers pay tributes to Pakistan armed forces to mark Youm-i-Tashakur
• CM Murad says India cannot unilaterally terminate Indus Waters Treaty

KARACHI: The Sindh Assembly was on Friday told that India could not unilaterally terminate the Indus Waters Treaty since it was beyond its mandate as the house unanimously adopted a resolution to mark “Youm-i-Tashakur” to pay tributes to the Pakistan armed forces for their effective response during the recent cross-border conflict.

In a remarkable show of unity, the members from both sides of the aisle paid rich tributes to the armed forces of the country for giving a befitting and resolute response to Indian aggression.

Adopting a joint resolution, signed by all parliamentary parties in the house, the house vehemently condemned India for the cowardly attacks in the darkness of night targeting innocent civilians and said that the entire nation and armed forces responded with complete unity against the Indian aggression.

Speaking on the resolution, Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said that India’s announcement of terminating the Indus Waters Treaty was beyond its mandate as not a single clause of it could be amended without the consent of both the countries.

“Pakistan responded firmly, making it clear that any attempt to impede water flow would be considered an act of war,” he added.

Referring Indian Prime Minister Modi as the Butcher of Gujarat, Mr Shah said that on May 7 India had initiated missile strikes on four locations, targeting civilians and places of worship. “By the evening of the same day, Pakistan Air Force successfully downed Indian aircraft,” he added.

The CM said that 85 drones dispatched on May 8 were also neutralised. “Sindh mourned its first martyr, Mukhtar Leghari from Ghotki, whose father, Eidan Leghari, was also injured in these attacks. Karachi’s Sharafi Goth was also struck by drones, resulting in injuries to a security official,” he added.

The chief minister described the ensuing chaotic coverage in Indian media, which falsely claimed widespread destruction in Lahore, Sialkot, and Karachi. “It almost resembled a cartoonish portrayal,” he quipped.

The CM said: “It was during this critical juncture that Pakistan launched Operation Bunyan-um-Marsoos at 5:15am, an operation that garnered international attention within a mere three hours,” and added that the US Secretary of State contacted Pakistan at 8:15am, urgently requesting a ceasefire.

“Our brave forces precisely targeted and neutralised 26 key Indian strategic sites, including Udhampur Airbase, Northern Command, Pathankot, Sirsa, Bathinda, Ambala, Jalandhar, Ferozepur, and numerous missile installations,” he said.

The chief minister also expressed profound gratitude to allied nations, including China, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, for their support.

Opposition Leader Ali Khurshidi of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan said that people of Pakistan irrespective of their ethnicities, political affiliations and schools of thought responded to India as a nation.

“We did not waste time in giving a befitting and effective response to the enemy and completed the work within few hours,” he said paying rich tributes to the armed forces.

He said that India had lost on the political, diplomatic and international fronts.

Mr Khurshidi also condemned the role of Indian media in the war environment, terming it shameful.

He said that the Pakistani army was a professional army and our nation was a great nation. “Our image has been raised all over the world, for which I pay tribute to the political and military leadership,” he added.

Education Minister Syed Sardar Shah said that Indian Prime Minister Modi did not want the development of India but its destruction. “He invited destruction by plunging his country into war and demonstrated madness,” he added.

The minister said that it was a matter of great joy that all the politicians of Pakistan had united on the occasion of war.

Jamaat-i-Islami lone lawmaker Muhammad Farooq said that Allah had united the entire Pakistani nation. “We should thank Allah for the success of the Pakistani army,” he said adding that when the time of trial came for the country, we united forgetting our own schools of thought and political parties.

Mr Farooq said that India had lost the war, now we would talk to it with full dignity.

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf parliamentary party leader Shabbir Qureshi said that the Muslims around the world were comforted when missiles fell on India.

He said that India had thought that it was a right time to attack Pakistan due to the political situation in the country.

Raising the slogan “Long live Pakistan, Long live Pak Army”, he said, that the Pakistani armed forces silenced the enemy’s guns.

The PTI members also paid rich tributes to late Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Abdul Qadeer Khan.

PPP leaders including Health Minister Azra Pechuho, Home Minister Zia Lanjar, Irrigation Minister Jam Khan Shoro, Local Government Minister Saeed Ghani, Deputy Speaker Anthony Naveed, Agha Siraj Durrani and Dr Sham Sunder and MQM-P’s Mahesh Kumar, Abdul Wasim and Iftikhar Alam also spoke.

Later, Speaker Awais Qadir Shah adjourned the house to Monday.

Published in Dawn, May 17th, 2025