Nationalists reject new administrative units

A conference of the Sindhi nationalist parties has rejected the agreement between Pakistan Peoples Party and Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan, reiterating that they will strongly oppose creation of new administrative units in the province.

"The first result of the agreement between PPP and MQM-P is that the chief secretary of Sindh has been appointed on ethnic basis," said Sindh Taraqi Pasand (STP) Chairman Dr Qadir Magsi.

"Now that chief secretary will make more transfers and postings on the basis of ethnic affiliations." Speaking at the conference organised by STP at Indus Hotel in Hyderabad on Sunday, Magsi said MQM-P's chief Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui and other party leaders are nominated in terrorism cases, adding that Siddiqui is also booked in the case of killings and recovery of illegal weapons.

"After plundering Sindh's resources for the last 15 years, the PPP is now invading the geographical unity of Sindh." He recalled that by enacting a dual local government system of 2013 the PPP under its co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari set the foundation for dividing the province.

"We reject the mindset which considers Sindh a province of the people who speak two different languages. We reject hatred on the basis of language." He dubbed PPP, MQM-P and PML-N as enemies of Sindh. Magsi said the nationalist parties are working to create a parliamentary alliance of the political parties which will challenge those three parties in the elections.

"This conference has created a small hope that the nationalist leaders of Sindh will overcome their personal differences to form an electoral alliance." The STP's blamed some vested interests for creating hatred between Sindhis and Urdu speaking people. He contended that Sindhis never hated Urdu speaking people after they had migrated from India but the friction started when the agricultural lands on which Sindhi peasants used to toil were auctioned.

He blamed Zardari and PPP's chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari for trading off the motherland for their political ambitions. The QAT President Palijo said people of Sindh have no hope from Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif because it is evident that Sindh is not on their agenda.

He questioned Sharif under what authority he is talking about creating new administrative units in a certain time frame in Sindh as well as in other provinces. Palijo said they believed that the agreements have actually been signed between PPP and MQM-P while the role of the PML-N has been nominal.

"The people of Sindh who praise Zardari as a political genius because he knows how to bribe people to get votes should feel ashamed." Commenting on the apex court's judgment over the local government system in favour of the MQMP's petition, Palijo urged the court to form a larger bench to hear the case again. He alleged that the PTI government's attorney general and PPP's Sindh government's advocate general indirectly supported the judgment in MQM-P's favour.

He warned the N-league that their support for the agreement will cost them electoral support in Sindh. The notable writer and dramatist Noorul Huda Shah asked the nationalist leaders to talk about the role of the country's establishment for the woes afflicting the people of Sindh.

"We should talk about the establishment's plans against Sindh and raise our voice." She advised the nationalist leaders to train their workers and to put an end to issuing certificates of betrayal against each other. "Sindh has been divided in the tribal and feudal system. Only true political leadership can get rid of these systems which have been hurting and suppressing the people." Shah said use of the terminologies like Karachi and interior Sindh as well as urban and rural Sindh should also be opposed.

The Awami Jamhoori Party's president Syed Lal Shah said the PTI's government at the center implemented anti-Sindh policies. However, he added, the opposition parties which have replaced prime minister Imran Khan have come up with more sinister designs for Sindh. Prof Aijaz Qureshi, Prof Mushtaq Mirani, Zulfiqar Halepoto, Dr Ayub Shaikh and other nationalist leaders, writers and intellectuals also expressed their views.