ON Sunday, Aug 12, Dawn’s edition of Metro South used the phrase “[...] paying rich tributes to the people of Karachi and Sindh [...].”

This phrase misrepresents the historical sanctity of Sindh by presenting the city and the province as separate entities. This amounts to doing injustice to the Constitution, violating provincial autonomy, and the rule of law.

Pakistan has four provinces, Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. Nowhere do we write ‘Quetta and Balochistan’, or ‘Lahore and Punjab’, or ‘Peshawar and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’. Why, then, is this division reserved for Sindh?

Whether written mistakenly or deliberately, the phrase is misleading and unforgiveable. Karachi lies within Sindh, and is the provincial capital. The geography of Sindh is thousands of years old and cannot be changed summarily. It disunites the people of Sindh in particular and the nation as a whole.

The use of this particular phrase, or its like ‘Karachi and interior Sindh’, needs to be discontinued. Karachi should be identified as the capital of Sindh province. This will avoid social unrest and cater to the birthrights of the Sindhi people.

Qazi Akhtar Sindhi

Karachi

Published in Dawn, September 1st, 2018