one should understand that protest was not against the needy or displaced people; it was against terror elements.
ISLAMABAD: It has been reported that nationalist parties have protested against the entry of the IDPs in Sindh. These parties have been repeatedly condemned by different people for launching such a protest against people who are in need.
Firstly, one should understand that the protest was not against the needy or displaced people; it was against terror elements or terrorist who may enter Sindh posing as IDPs.
If told at a blow, this kind of story has an immense shock value. But one should know that this mistrust has a background and history. When such unfortunate things happened earlier, many distressed people entered the province and the people of Sindh welcomed them with open arms. Later, many migrants encroached upon the lands and made life for Sindhis miserable.
It is owing to these apprehensions that people of Sindh are not in a mood to welcome anything that may lead to potential acts of terror.
Last but not the least, one should question why the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) government did not put all its effort in handling or managing people who are displaced because of the ongoing operation. The ‘tsunami’ is always ready for all kinds of protest. It always has a charged mob handy. If they care about the displaced people of their province, they can really help by garnering public attention and sympathy. They can appeal for help from Sindh, Balochistan and Punjab, etc. and no one is going to reject it at all. Sindhis are blessed with feelings of pity and mercy, but not when peace is threatened.
The PTI should play a positive role and run a social campaign to help people in K-P as much as it can. Moreover, one needs to question why the federal government is expected to provide all support to IDPs.
One notices that whenever there is a PML-N government in power, there is a feeling of inferiority in other provinces and regional disparity. Why is it so? For how long will the small provinces take the responsibility of the mistakes of the largest province?
The governments of the PTI and the PML-N didn’t play their roles to lessen the miseries of the displaced people. It is and it was the responsibility of the government to provide them with all facilities where they are located instead of moving them to other areas.
Naushaba Abid
Published in The Express Tribune, July 20th, 2014.
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