For the motherland: Qadir Magsi asks Sindh to stop talking about secession

This is the first time a Sindhi nationalist leader has spoken out against GM Syed.

HYDERABAD: The Sindhi nationalist leader Dr Qadir Magsi has urged the people of Sindh, who nurture resentment against the federation of Pakistan, that they do not need to ‘dislike’ the country. “We shouldn’t hate Pakistan; only the system that subjugates particular segments of people,” he said, while addressing the Sindh Taraqi Pasand party’s 24th annual motherland day public meeting on Saturday night in Qasimabad Town.

“The breakup of Pakistan will immediately lead to the division of Sindh into many parts. The terrorists employed for this agenda of foreign powers are working on this scheme in Sindh,” he said, dissociating his party from those who raise the slogan of secession from Pakistan. “Our party is not one of those who shed blood of innocent people for the sake of dollars and euros”.

Magsi advised the rulers to reform the federating system in a way that no ethnic group such as Baloch, Sindhis, Seraiki or Pakhtun consider themselves inferior to others. All provincial and major languages should be given national status, he added.

In a rare public criticism of the ideologue of Sindhi nationalism, late GM Syed, the STP chairperson said that hundreds of Syed’s political decisions proved to be detrimental for Sindh. The STP chairperson expressed support for the ongoing military operation, ‘Zarb-i-Azb’ in Waziristan, but demanded that it should continue until no terrorist is left alive on the country’s soil.

He also came down hard on the Pakistan Peoples Party leader Asif Zardari, accusing him of trading the blood of Zulfikar Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto for his nefarious interests. Magsi said the Sindhis need to elect progressive and enlightened leadership to the legislature for their representation.

The provincial leaders of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and other parties also addressed the meeting. Later, the motherland awards were given to Dr Adeeb Rizvi for health, Abdul Hai Paleejo for literature, Bedil Masroor for music and IBA Sukkur for education.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 24^th, 2015.