Former dictators sold Pakistani rivers to India: PPP leader

A senior leader of the ruling Pakistan People's Party (PPP) today alleged that three former dictators had "sold" the country's rivers to India.

"General Ayub Khan made a deal on the Beas river while General Zia-ul-Haq handed over the Ravi. General Pervez Musharraf sold out the Chenab and allowed India to build dams on them," said Raja Riaz, a PPP leader and senior minister of the coalition government in Punjab province.
  
Riaz said Pakistan's agriculture sector could not improve as it should have over the last 62 years.

"Instead of one person or the government, we all are responsible for this," he said.

"We are facing an acute shortage of water and power. It is a bitter fact that for the past eight years, no new water allotment has been given, and we are lacking 54% of our water requirements," he said.

In view of a bumper crop, the federal government had decided to allow the export of wheat to Afghanistan, Riaz said.