Sindh's people will not support Prime Minister Imran Khan if he does not change his attitude, declared Qaumi Awami Tehreek leader Ayaz Latif Palijo as the five-day Sindh Awareness March, launched in Kandhkot, culminated in Karachi on Sunday.
The rally, protesting the controversial Pakistan Islands Development Authority Ordinance promulgated by President Dr Arif Alvi, arrived at the Karachi Press Club with scores of participants joining it from across the province.
Palijo - who is also the general secretary of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf partner Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) - reiterated the call for the federal government to withdraw the ordinance and demanded that the GDA part ways with the coalition government in the Centre.
Claiming that international conspiratorial elements were working against Pakistan's territorial waters, he appealed to Chief Justice of Pakistan Gulzar Ahmed and Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Bajwa to take notice of the matter.
"This is only the beginning of the movement for Sindh's rights," he claimed, warning that if the PIDA Ordinance is not withdrawn within weeks, his party would walk on the path of resistance.
"The eyes of conspiring powers are on our seas and islands. We will not allow this conspiracy to succeed," declared Palijo, maintaining that breaking Sindh was tantamount to breaking Pakistan.
He further asked representatives in the government elected from Sindh to part ways from the federation if PIDA was not withdrawn, as he lamented that only Jamiat-e-Ulema-Fazl's Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party's Mahmood Khan Achakzai had raised the matter of the islands but not the Pakistan Peoples Party.
"PPP chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari's approach has been reactive rather than proactive. He only takes notice when the rights of Sindh's people are violated but does not take concrete action," claimed Palijo, referring to Karachi being submerged in the monsoon rain, the abduction of young girls, and wheat theft in the province as examples.
"Sindh is not to be treated as destitute land," he said, directing his comments towards Imran, Bilawal and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz's Maryam Nawaz. "It was Sindh which passed the resolution for Pakistan."
The premier was elected from Mianwali and rules Islamabad but objects to people elected from interior Sindh leading the provincial government, remarked Palijo. "All ethnicities living in Karachi are connected with Sindhis. The Urdu-speaking are our brothers and share the same blood as that of others from Sindh," he said, adding that all the diverse ethnicities in Sindh would progress together.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 9th, 2020.
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