Sunita Meghwar plans to become first indigenuous woman of Tharparkar to contest from PS-56 in the Sindh Assembly polls
KARACHI: It is heart warming to know that Sunita Parmar Meghwar plans to become the first indigenuous woman of Tharparkar to contest for a directly elected seat from PS-56 in the Sindh Assembly polls on 25th July 2018.
She has all our best wishes for success in this path-breaking endeavour .
A report on 7th June 2018 quotes her as saying “ The only main road in Thar was built by Engro because of the Thar coal project . Our main source of transport remains donkeys”.
As a volunteer-worker familiar with Tharparkar for over 33 years , I am obliged to contradict both the above statements . While metalled roads were sparse in February 1985 when one commenced work in that region , slow expansion continued for the next 15 years . There was a dramatic, rapid increase in the construction of metalled roads during the tenure of General Pervez Musharraf (1999-2008) , in part of which Arbab Ghulam Rahim served as chief minister .
It is inconvenient and awkward for some to acknowledge that anything positive and progressive occurred during the rule of a military head of state/government and a chief minister who supported him.
But even as this writer continues to have strong reservations about several aspects of General Musharraf’s actions and even though I am aware that Arbab Ghulam Rahim displayed extreme bias against some of his political opponents in allocation of funds for local infrastructure in the region, I want to stress that during the period of their office, respectively at the federal and provincial levels, significant improvements took place in Tharparkar in metalled roads, piped water supply, electricity supply, health and education .
It may be true that a metalled road has only recently reached the village where Sunita Parmar resides . But Tharparkar is spread over 10,000 square kms and people reside in far-flung, scattered settlements . Metalled roads have not yet reached many such small villages due to paucity of funds.
Secondly , as any visitor to Tharparkar will confirm, trucks, buses, motor-cycles , vans , cars/taxis ,camels, bullock-carts are also widely active, and not just the great animal — the poor, hard-working donkey !
Javed Jabbar
Published in The Express Tribune, June 16th, 2018.
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