National, provincial assemblies exploit Sindh resources

Nationalist leaders term it 'a part of the crime' against province

HYDERABAD:

The nationalists leaders, who spoke at the Sindh National Conference in Sukkur on Thursday, have held the national and provincial assemblies culpable for allowing alleged exploitation of Sindh's natural resources. They argued that the elected legislators sitting in those assemblies amended the constitution, sapping independence and powers of judiciary whose doors the ordinary people knocked to get justice.

"The rulers instead of learning from the past mistakes continue to exploit resources of smaller provinces," Syed Zain Shah, Sindh United Party's leader, said. He warned that weakening the country's constitution will also weaken the country itself.

He contended that the national and provincial assemblies are complicit in the exploitation of the provinces owned resources. "We consider them a part of the crime." He deplored that a selected cabal of politicians are being allowed to rule the country as per the whims of the selectors. He vowed to continue political struggle to protect Sindh and its natural resources.

Chairman Jeay Sindh Mahaz Riaz Ali Chandio, who hosted the conference, emphasised that Sindh's people and especially intellectuals will have to join the struggle, which is aimed at protecting the province's geography as well as to maintain its control over its resources. He said Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) for the sake of power has remained hands in gloves with the elements, which have been incessantly exploiting Sindh's resources since the country's independence.

Chandio argued that the alleged occupation of land and sea in the province smacked of the 1960s One Unit System in the country in which the provinces were deprived of their rights completely. He alleged that around 100,000 acres of land near Gorakh Hills and Haleji Lake is being taken for corporate farming.

"Sindh's lakes, oil, gas, coal and other resources are all being exploited to benefit Punjab." He lamented that the province's people neither had electricity nor gas even thought it should rather be self-sufficient with those utilities. Chandio went on to deplore that while 10 million children have been kept away from schools in the province, police are allegedly patronising drug peddlers as narcotics substances have been made accessible even for children.

Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz's Dr Niaz Kalani, Awami Jamhori Party's Noor Nabi Rahujo, Jeay Sindh Qaumi Party's Nawaz Khan Zaunr and Qaumi Awami Tehreek's advocate Zahid Bhanbro, among others, also expressed their views at the conference.