November 18, 2001	Sunday	Ramazan 2, 1422

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DADU, Nov 17: The nationalists of the four provinces of Pakistan were not accepting the constitution of 1973 as it was a “dead document” for the Sindhi, Seraiki, Pakhtoon and Baloch nations.

This was stated by former deputy speaker Sindh Assembly and PONAM leader, Syed Jalal Mehmood Shah, while talking to newsmen at the district council hall on Saturday.

He said that PONAM was demanding a new constitution promising equality among all the nations of Pakistan as envisaged in the resolution of 1940.

He said that 40 per cent Seraiki nation was living in Punjab but the government had not been giving them their rights.

He said the Seraiki were deprived of their state in 1954 and it was merged into Punjab province and all the rights of the Seraiki state were usurped.

Mr Shah said that the Seraiki and Khairpur states would be revived according to their previous geography.

He said that lacs of Mohajirs, Bengalis, Afghans, and Burmese had poured into Sindh but “we would not allow them to live in Sindh”.

Mr Shah regretted that when the nationalists of Sindh had protested and raised their voice on water shortage and other genuine rights, a group of intellectuals belonging to Punjab province created anti-nationalist policies and introduced their system in one or another way in Sindh, and added that Ms Asma Jehangir, I.A. Rehman, and Abid Hussain Manto were the best example of this school of thought.