LG ordinance backlash: Sindhi poet to return his Tamgha-e-Imtiaz in protest

Dur Mohammad Pathan said he could not keep an award bestowed by an ‘undemocratic party’.

SUKKUR:

Poet, writer and research scholar Dr Dur Mohammad Pathan, expressing his disappointment over the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) performance, announced on Sunday that he will return his Presidential Tamgha-e-Imtiaz.

Talking to the media, he blamed the PPP and Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) for ‘trying to harm the integrity and solidarity of Sindh’, which he said could not be tolerated. He was referring to the controversial local government ordinance. Pathan added that despite opposition from all over Sindh, PPP not only encouraged the Sindh governor to promulgate the ‘black ordinance’, but passed it in a record half hour.

Pathan said that these steps proved that the PPP and MQM were working against the interests of Sindh, and had therefore lost the mandate of the people of Sindh. He added that while several PPP MPAs were against the bill, they did not have the courage to oppose the bill openly.

The poet also said that if the ruling party claimed to have an answer to every query about the new local government system, then it should arrange a roundtable conference where all political and nationalist parties can debate the issue. Pathan also lashed out against the Sindh law minister, saying that he had learnt nothing from Benazir Bhutto and had therefore crossed his limits while criticising the writers and poets of Sindh.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Pathan said the Tamgha-e-Imtiaz was given to him last year for his services in the field of poetry and literature, and he had accepted the award because it was conferred by a democratic government. Having proven that it was now an ‘undemocratic party’, he said, he had now decided to return the award.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 15^th, 2012.