HYDERABAD: Sindh United Party (SUP) will join Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) if it incorporates in its charter demand for withdrawal of Pakistan Islands Development Authority (PIDA) Ordinance.

SUP secretary general Syed Zain Shah said at a press conference at local press club on Wednesday that SUP supported PDM’s agitation against forces who sought to interfere in political process.

He said that his party believed that Pakistan’s stability and progress was linked with recognition of federating units and giving them rights over their natural resources.

He urged the Sindh government to include islands in deh survey record after conducting land survey. SUP would be staging a rally on Nov 1 from Shahbaz Building to Goal Building under the aegis of Sindh Action Committee on islands issue, he said.

He said that SUP appreciated Sindh government’s initiative to withdraw NOC issued for islands and said that PPP had earlier passed dual local government system but under public pressure it had to withdraw legislation at the cost of its coalition with MQM.

He said that Sindh and Balochistan had joined Pakistan in line with 1940 Resolution but unfortunately attempts were always made by federalist forces to trample over their autonomy in the name of Pakistan’s interests.

He said that PIDA Ordinance was reflection of this mindset that justified occupation of coastal belt of Sindh and Balochistan.

Shah said that people of the two provinces would never accept the ordinance which deprived them of their right to rule and right over their natural resources. Any decision, which sought to convert Sindhi and Baloch populations into minority or usurp their resources and hand them over to federation, would not be accepted, he said.

He said that the ordinance would only deepen mistrust between federal government and federating units and might lead to some tragedy. This ordinance had lost moral authority following Sindh-wide protests by civil society and political activists, he said, urging international and local investors to refrain from pledging any investment.

Published in Dawn, October 29th, 2020