KARACHI: The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), a key member of the ruling coalition government, this week threatened to withdraw its support for the government if Islamabad did not back down from its controversial decision to construct new canals on the Indus River, amid fears of the project triggering water shortages in the country’s southern Sindh province.
Pakistan’s federal government has launched an ambitious project that aims to build canals across the country’s four provinces, which it says will help irrigate millions of acres of barren land and prevent food insecurity in the country. The move has triggered protests in Sindh where nationalist parties believe the initiative would cause water shortages, while critics say the project was planned without consent from stakeholders.
The PPP emerged as the second-largest political party after the controversial 2024 general election in Pakistan. It helped Shehbaz Sharif get elected as Pakistan’s prime minister for a second time and settled for the presidency and the governorship in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) provinces, areas where it performed poorly in the national polls. If the PPP withdraws its support, Sharif’s coalition government would no longer have the majority in parliament.
“Chairman Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has taken a resolute stance, emphatically calling on the federal government to immediately abandon its controversial plan to construct six new canals on the Indus River,” the party’s media cell said in a statement on Friday.
“He warned that if the project is not abandoned, it will no longer be possible for the PPP to continue supporting Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s government,” the statement added.
Bhutto Zardari was speaking at a rally organized by the PPP in Sindh’s Hyderabad city. Speaking to charged supporters of the party, Bhutto Zardari said he would stand with the people “if I am ever forced to choose between the government and the people.”
The PPP chairman said his party does not believe in “opposition for the sake of opposition” and it is opposing the controversial canal project because it poses a threat to the federation.
He said that at a time when militant organizations were increasing attacks in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and southwestern Balochistan provinces, the government has stirred a matter that threatens people with “death by thirst.”
Bhutto Zardari criticized Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party and its governments, calling their policies anti-farmer and anti-agriculture. He questioned the logic to build more water canals in the country when Pakistan was already suffering from a water crisis.
“Let the government stop this canals plan, and we will present a 50-year roadmap for agricultural development,” he said. “Why would I not want to see progress in Tharparkar and Cholistan? But I will never compromise on the River Indus.”
The PPP chairman said the party would hold a protest rally in Sindh’s Sukkur city on Apr. 25 against the controversial project.
Key Pakistan ruling coalition ally threatens to withdraw government support over canals issue
https://arab.news/gkgup
Key Pakistan ruling coalition ally threatens to withdraw government support over canals issue
- Federal government’s move to construct new canals on River Indus has triggered protests in Sindh
- Pakistan Peoples Party chairman says canals project threatens people of Sindh with “death by thirst”
Pakistan turns to immersive technology to reimagine ancient Gandhara
- New gallery uses artificial intelligence and 3D visuals to present Buddhist heritage
- Visitors can explore archaeological sites digitally rather than through static displays
ISLAMABAD: At the Islamabad Museum, history no longer sits quietly behind glass.
In September 2025, the museum introduced Pakistan’s first Digital Immersive Gallery, an experiment in how ancient civilizations can be narrated in the age of artificial intelligence, 3D projection and virtual environments. Developed in collaboration with the Korea Heritage Agency, Pakistan’s Department of Archaeology and the National Heritage and Culture Division, the gallery marks a shift from object-centered displays to experience-based storytelling.
Rather than beginning with labels and timelines, the gallery opens with movement, sound and light. Visitors are invited to step into a reconstructed visual world shaped around Gandhara, one of South Asia’s most influential yet often under-explained civilizations that developed across what is now northwestern Pakistan and parts of eastern Afghanistan and later played a foundational role in the spread of Buddhism beyond the subcontinent.
“We have shown here in our Immersive Gallery how Buddhism flourished here, how it was introduced, how it declined and how it shifted to China, Korea and Japan from here,” Dr. Abdul Ghafoor, Deputy Director at the Department of Archaeology and Museums, told Arab News.
“In order to make it, the content developed by Korea has fully used AI and IT,” he continued. “AI and IT are common in Korea and other developed countries, but we have done it for the first time in Pakistan.”
Gandhara flourished between the first century BCE and the fifth century CE in this region, which served as a cultural crossroads, shaped by Greek, Central Asian, Persian and South Asian influences.
It was here that artists first began depicting the Buddha in human form, a visual language that later traveled along trade routes to Central Asia, China, Korea and Japan. This transmission of ideas, beliefs and artistic styles forms the core narrative of the immersive gallery.
“Inside the gallery, visitors are drawn into a world of interactive experiences, heritage documentaries they can zoom in and out of, Gandhara artifacts explored up close and photo zones where they can capture themselves against Pakistan’s most iconic sites,” Muhammad Azeem, Project Director at the Department of Archaeology and Museums, said.
While Gandhara anchors the gallery, the experience expands outward to place it within a longer and wider historical arc. One section is dedicated to Pakistan’s six UNESCO World Heritage Sites, offering visitors a compressed journey across centuries and regions.
“The main hall takes it further with a fully immersive 3D journey,” Azeem added. “Each seven-minute segment transports audiences to treasures like Mohenjo-Daro, Makli Necropolis, Lahore’s Shalimar Gardens and Sheesh Mahal, and the historic landscapes of Taxila and Takht-i-Bahi, making the past feel vivid, unforgettable and alive.”
For many visitors, the gallery’s appeal lies in how it lowers the barrier to understanding. Instead of long explanatory panels, history is introduced through visuals, motion and guided narrative.
“I saw different historical sites on big screens which was very exciting for me,” Fatima Nawaz, a government employee, said. “After that, I watched a complete documentary in the gallery, which was about 20 minutes long, and in which different historical sites related to Gandhara were highlighted.”
“Overall, it was a very good experience,” she added.
Researchers see the initiative as part of a broader global shift in how museums function.
“My topic is Cultural Heritage Museum, and with this research, I am studying and visiting museums,” Abdul Khaliq, an M.Phil. student at Quaid-e-Azam University, said. “One thing I have not seen in Pakistan before is the shift toward virtual reality.”
He added that it was a good step while calling the immersive gallery “very educational and gives us a lot to learn.”
For the officials involved in the project, the gallery is a starting point rather than a finished model.
“The response we have received from the public in Islamabad makes me feel that this should be done in all the museums, in all four provinces of Pakistan,” Dr. Ghafoor, the senior archaeology department official, said. “This is because it can make it easier to follow history.”
“I think such immersive galleries should be there in all the museums,” he added.
