25 January 2004	Sunday	02 Zilhaj 1424

HYDERABAD, Jan 24: Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief Altaf Hussain has demanded that Sindh should be given its due share in the National Finance Commission award.

In his telephonic speech at a gathering of Sindhi intellectuals, journalists and writers at a hotel here on Friday night, he said the provinces should be given share in the NFC award on the basis of their revenue generation and contribution to the national exchequer.

He also demanded that the provinces should be duly represented in the army.

About the greater Thal canal and the Kalabagh dam, he said sit-ins and slogans against the projects alone could not solve the problems and added that his party was struggling for resolution of the issue in assemblies.

Mr Hussain said different ethnic and cultural groups living in the country should be treated equally as justice, democracy and fair treatment to different groups was necessary for the prosperity of the country.

He said religious parties were condemning the operation in Wana but, he claimed, they had supported such operations in Balochistan and rural areas of Sindh during the MRD movement and in Karachi in 1990s.

He said today the people could not be hoodwinked through negative propaganda as the world had become a global village due to the fast spread of information technology.

The MQM chief said whenever he talked about the absence of Sindhi and Balochi-speaking people in the country's high commissions, he was dubbed as traitor.

If Sindhis and Balochs were not competent enough to become high commissioners or ambassadors then let them decide their own destiny and struggle for their rights, he observed and added that "we had the experiment of East Pakistan where the Awami League was not handed over power though they represented 56 per cent of the population against 44 per cent."

On the contrary, he said, they had to face military operation because of complicity of West Pakistan's feudal lords and the army. He said the feudal lords knew that if the party grew stronger they would find it hard to perpetuate their rule.

He said Bengalis had demonstrated large-heartedness by accepting parity as the basis of the 1956 Constitution despite being in majority.

He maintained that while Sindhis and Balochs were declared traitors, Hanif Ramay was still considered a loyal despite writing the Punjab case.

The Muttahida leader demanded that provincial autonomy should be ensured and resolutions about water projects be respected.

He said the policy of divide and rule was over now as Urdu and Sindhi speaking people were permanent residents of the province.

Answering a question, he said if anyone stood guarantee that controversial water projects would be shelved if the MQM quit the government or sacrificed lives of its activists, the party was ready for it.

He called upon political parties to unite on one platform on the issues. He said the MQM would join the protest of the Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz in February as it had done in the past.

He however said a battle with the establishment would not be wise.