Altaf Hussain demands rights of Sindh

The News
25 October 2003

JACOBABAD: Muttahida Quami Movement founder leader Altaf Hussain on Friday decried the tendency to employ non-Sindhis in multinationals, engaged in oil and gas exploration projects in the country’s southern province.

Addressing a huge gathering at Jacobabad as part of the party’s campaign to reorganise itself at zonal and unit levels in upper Sindh, he served a word of caution against ignoring the genuine aspirations of the people of a province who for long had been exploited.

Most of their fertile lands had been given to outsiders, the province’s due share has been denied so far by the National Finance Commission, and apprehensions are being openly expressed about the negative fallout of the Kalabagh Dam and Thal Canal projects on the economy of the province, he said.

The genuine desires of the Sindhis, he told the cheering crowd, will have to be met, and the sooner this is done, the better it would be for the unity and integrity of the country. Altaf made it clear that the rights of the Sindhi people will have to be accepted, and Sindhis should be treated as equal citizens of Pakistan.

Tracing the history of injustice done to the province, he said Sindh, was given a raw deal by the English rulers and had been denied its rights even after independence of the country in 1947. That was a tragedy because Pakistan was founded by Muslims of the minority provinces of India, and the veteran Sindhi leader late G M Syed was the first to initiate the Pakistan Resolution, but he was declared a traitor, he regretted.

A similar treatment was meted out to the Bengalis who were in search of their rights, but instead of giving them their rights, they too were declared traitors, and ultimately pushed out of the federation of Pakistan, he said.

Altaf called for removing the apprehensions of the Sindhis on the Kalabagh and Thal Canal projects, otherwise, he warned, the sense of deprivation will mount among the people of the southern province.

He said the Muttahida believed in oneness and unity of the country, and wanted the country to flourish, but any attempt to crush the aspirations of the people by force, or use of bullets, would have a negative fallout.

Altaf lamented that big landlords, known as Waderas in local parlance, and parties, claiming to have a foothold in Sindh, had never really served the cause of the province,. While the Waderas bartered the interest of their province for personal gains, the parties, portraying themselves as champions of the cause of the Sindhi people, had been a major disappointment, he said.

He concluded by telling the people that without struggle and sacrifices, their goal of achieving their rights will remain elusive. They will have to face difficulties with courage and conviction and hold aloft the banner of their cause, he said. Only then can they hope to achieve their destination, he said. He appealed to the people to unite under the banner of the Haq Parast party, which is Muttahida Quami Movement because this was a party of the poor, and will never let them down.