KARACHI, May 26: Veteran Muslim Leaguer Yousuf Haroon suggested here on Sunday that the Senate should be given veto power over National Assembly decisions.

“Since the provinces have no parity in the National Assembly and it is only the Senate where their representatives are in equal number, this forum should have the power to veto any of the wrong decisions taken by the assembly,” he said while addressing the launching ceremony of Awaz-i-Sindh an Urdu translation by the late Mujeeb Inqilabi of Sindh Speaks, the 1992 court statement of G. M. Syed.

The ceremony was organized by the G. M. Syed Foundation in connection with the centenary celebrations of the nationalist leader.

Mr Yousuf Haroon, said it was the late G. M. Syed who not only got the first ever resolution in favour of Pakistan passed in the Sindh Assembly but it was he who got inserted the words ‘autonomous states’ in the historical Pakistan Resolution of 1940.

Mr Haroon said G. M. Syed was a great leader produced by Sindh who always fought for the rights of his homeland. Much before Pakistan came into existence, G. M. Syed and a few other leaders struggled for separating Sindh from the Bombay presidency. He said every person who lived in Sindh was a Sindhi and he should raise his voice for the rights of this province.

Abdul Waheed Katpar, senior minister of Sindh in the Z. A. Bhutto government, who was counsel to G. M. Syed in 1992, spoke on the injustices done to Sindh and suggested that representatives of the smaller provinces in the National Assembly should demand parity in parliament and move an amendment to the Constitution.

Syed Jalal Mahmood Shah, former deputy speaker of the Sindh Assembly and grandson of G.M. Syed, in his address said the G. M. Syed Foundation had decided to organize the centenary celebrations this year. In this connection, a literary conference was planned for July 15 at Hyderabad to highlight the late Syed’s services and contribution to Sindhi literature.

He said a book containing correspondence between Muhammad Ali Jinnah and G. M. Syed was under preparation and was to be ready by the end of this year. Moreover, the foundation, which he heads, has planned to set up a resource centre at Jamshoro with historical papers and books related to G. M. Syed which would be available to researchers.—PPI