I

In the Beginning

We gathered in Daera Din-Panha (Circle of God's Protection) to meditate on truth - to uncover the truth of what has passed. How and why it had become. And what is to be done now.

Where these words are the result of our meditations on truth at the Lok Sath, they are words which emerge from the depths of truth. And it is our judgement on the Chashma Canal.

Where we sat bears visual testimony to the color by which the canal has scarred our lands. The entire Damaan lay itself bare to us. In the distance towards the West the Suleiman Range, the fountain of the rowed kohee, cast its shadow a reminder of the ways things had once been. We sat in the Command Area laid dusty brown - testimony to the failure of the canals dream and promise of abundance and perennial water. And we looked down on kaachi seeing the lush green of the riverine belt. And in the distance we see the shimmering of the goddess. The Indus.

And it is homage to the Indus that the Lok Sath opens with our poets' recitation:

If the River dies, my dearest listen,
the eyes die, the heart dies,
the identity of our being and our living dies

So as the slumber of the blue waters die
It is not just the swan couplet that dies,
But the entire laughter of the River that dies

And so we are inextricably tied to the River. To know the state of our being look merely at the River as your guide. Our laughter, cries and suffering are mere echoes of that of the River. We allowed ourselves to be parted from the Indus and the ways of our ancestors, we allowed others to take her away from us and be packaged in languages which have no relation to the lands and its waters.

And singing our redemption song we brought to pass the Lok Sath: And in taking back the power we worship the Goddess. To revive our lands and our waters and speak once more in the language of the Indus.

The passing of this judgement at the Lok Sath sets a precedent of our peoples doing law. And it is in this vein that we speak this judgement our gaze turning upon those who perpetuate crimes which destroy the link which furnishes as our very being.

II

Dreams and Crimes

There once came a dream of abundance. A Canal would be carved across out lands that would furnish us with all the wares that we need to enter the world of the developed. A world in which water would be plentiful, and crops could be grown for sale at far away markets, and all the oddities of the world could come to rest in our hands and on our terms.

We lived and breathed that dream. It colonised the way in which we knew our world. It was taught in our schools. It was echoed in the building of our nation(s). All spoke from the same hymn sheet and a sense of naturalness was granted to this dream. It became the only dream. And therein lies the first and most deadly of all crimes, the drawing of a singular dream.

So the canal came into being. And in its becoming the dream slowly faded. Reality was a mere shadow of the promises. And we awoke from the dream. Instead the dream brought with it a violence that ruptured our very sense of being, tearing us from the lands and its waters. The mirage was built on lies and deceit.

Here is the litany of violence that the canal and its dream brought to us, by design or by default, by intent or by negligence this is what came to pass:

And therein lies the testimony of those who have lost. This litany would be seen as isolated incidences and so the categories and listing of violence would restrict itself. And that is precisely how you would bracket your violence, simple boxes to be remedied. To be left in your hands and your graciousness to remedy. That this is not a mere misfortune or an isolated happening was testified to by those from other areas who have suffered similar violation. From the LBOD; Tarbela; Badin, RBOD, Kacchi Canal, Greater Thal Canal, Ghazi Barotha Project, coastal areas - all subject to similar logics.

The dream had become a nightmare.

And yet there was a deeper series of crimes that this litany speaks of. It tells of a threefold taking

Of Language: When you tore us apart you also tore apart the language by which we read this land. The language of the land by which we have lived for centuries was replaced by a science which relies on the state as its motor and its legitimacy - yet a science that failed as the litany bears testimony to its technical failures. Language dignifies life and you deny us the communicable nature of humanity and nature. The Lok Sath restores this.

Of Power: power was taken away from us and placed in others' hands. And with that destiny is taken from our hands. Everything that furnished us with the languages of the land have been taken and given to others to exert their control over us and our destinies. No longer paying homage to the Goddess and the Rowed Kohee we must pay homage to the man who controls our waters, who compensates us, who resolves our disputes over our lands et al. The Lok Sath restores this.

Of Material: water which lied between God and us you have taken away and sought to make it into just a simple good which can be bought and sold. And in commodifying water you commodify us. The Lok Sath responds to this.

III

Guilt

The testimony of the victims that constructs the litany omits to tell us who is responsible for these crimes. Who enabled this violence? Who is guilty?

We bring to task two criminals who colluded together:

The state of Pakistan
The Asian Development Bank

The former provided the physical arms for the implementation of the crime - the police, the ongoing colonial architecture of power, WAPDA, the law, the bulldozers. The latter furnished the capital and forms the new colonial architecture of power that the weight of the world now carries.

The justification and your defence is that it was done for a greater common good, under the name of development. It is this that animates your interventions. A development that requires sacrifices, the death of us as us. And for what have we been sacrificed - the salvation you seek for this sacrifice is in development. That what you do is for the good of us. And if not us then certainly it is good postponed for some future or a good shifted to some other place. And when we testify that in fact it is not good for us and victims from other projects testify that you are habitual criminals, one wonders who it is who benefits from this sacrifice?

We announce that those who benefit are yourselves. Your machinery and industry of your being - civil contracts, corruption, consultants, interest rates, new loans to cover old loans, promotions, daily allowances, and the continuity of elites old and building of elites new.

That this was your intent is apparent as you attempt to abrogate responsibility claiming it was the other that committed the crime. And when you have the chance to redeem yourselves in your Stakeholders dialogue and in the GRSC, you soil your hands even more and your intent is made clear as the business of your being is renewed. You obscure your crimes by your laws and your conscience dies.

Our Lok Sath pronounces you guilty.

IV

Punishment and/or Surrender

And so what is to be done?

Realisation of your crimes has not been forthcoming, your deeds, your words and your eyes tell us that this realisation has not come to pass. Instead you obscure and collude to avoid your responsibility, the passing through the temples and the machinery of your law acts as your redemption song. And yet it cannot redeem because you have not recognised your crime and your failures.

Instead we are left with no choice. Punishment and/or surrender? It is both. The only punishment that can be is surrender of yourselves and the confession and realisation of your crimes. Step away from your law which negates any possibility of your conscience. And resort to the course of salvation which lies either in the law of love or of suffering. The choice is laid bare for you - respond to your conscience and admit your crimes and failures and take responsibility for these. Or face our conscience.

Let us help you make this tangible:

The Lok Sath declares the start of a campaign of civil disobedience which can include:

1 Water Taxes will not be paid.
2 A Long March or Jal Jatra, a pilgrimage to worship the Indus water and feel its pain.
3 An Indefinite Hunger Strike to suffer on your behalf and quench violence.