SAC takes to the streets against islands ‘occupation’

Nationalist leaders slam PPP for issuing NOC to the Centre for development on Bhandar, Dingi

HYDERABAD:

The Sindh Action Committee, consisting of nationalist political parties, took to the streets across Sindh to protest the Centre's "occupation" of Bhandar and Dingi islands, off Karachi's shores.

The demonstrations were held in Hyderabad, Larkana, Mirpurkhas, Sukkur, Nawabshah, Thatta, Badin and other cities.

Speaking at a protest rally outside Hyderabad Press Club, Sindh United Party general secretary Roshan Ali Buriro blamed the Pakistan Peoples Party's (PPP) Sindh government for issuing a no-objection certificate (NOC) to the federal government for development on the two islands.

"The Centre would never have dared to promulgate the [Pakistan Islands Development Authority] ordinance if the provincial government hadn't given the NOC," he insisted.

Terming the present democratic order worse than martial law, he claimed Sindh's rights and resources were being appropriated in broad daylight. Buriro warned that Sindh's people would rather be termed traitors than letting the federation occupy the province's islands.

Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz's (JSQM) Deedar Sham said the federal government was not only occupying the two islands but rather the province's seas. He asked the people of Sindh to support the movement for protecting the islands en masse, so that the international community took notice of the matter.

JSQM's Niaz Kalani, too, criticised PPP's chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari for failing to mention the islands in his speech at the Pakistan Democratic Movement rally in Gujranwala on Friday.

Hoth Khan Gadahi, from the Sindh Taraqqi Pasand Party, questioned why the PPP had not yet passed a resolution against the presidential ordinance in the Sindh Assembly, while Awami Tehreek's Daud Dahiri said Sindh's people would not cede even an inch of their land to anyone.

Qamar Zaman Rajpar, of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, said his party supported the stance of Sindh's people in this regard.

Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl's Khalid Dhamrah, too, expressed support, stating that his party had always supported Sindh's nationalist leaders whenever any attempt was made against the province's unity, resources and territorial rights.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 18^th, 2020.