HYDERABAD: Leaders of nationalist and leftist parties on Sunday accused the Pakistan Peoples Party of selling off Sindh’s natural resources and heritage sites and said though the Sindh government had not openly backed out, it appeared to be trying to hoodwink people on islands issue.

They were speaking at first major protest rally organised by Sindh Action Committee (SAC) in Hyderabad against promulgation of Pakistan Islands Development (PIDA) Ordinance. The rally began from Pakistan Chowk and terminated at Risala Road.

Sindh United Party (SUP) secretary general Syed Zain Shah, who delivered presidential address in place of SAC convener and SUP president Jalal Mehmood Shah because of his illness, said that if the Sindh government really considered the PIDA ordinance a wrong step then it should either move Council of Common Interests or the apex court and emphatically tell these forums that this plan was unacceptable to Sindhi people.

If the Sindh government did not do it, then it would be considered a party to the anti-Sindh plan, he said.

He said that Sindh’s rulers had sold out demography of Sindh but people would no more tolerate any attempt to usurp their land even though it should be done through president of the country. The Sindh government had apparently not backed out but it was perhaps trying to hoodwink people on the issue, he said.

He said that work on islands had been going on for last one and a half year and when people tried to go there to record protest they were confronted by soldiers. If security institutions were used to quell protests it would harm the country, he cautioned.

He said that the islands had been sold to multinational companies whose men would be working there without passport while people of Sindh would need a document to go there.

Presently, the constitution protected islands as properties of the province but if a new legislation or amendment was done to deprive Sindh of this right then people would offer stiff resistance, he warned.

Sindh Taraqqi-pasand Party (STP) chairman Dr Qadir Magsi said that a conspiracy had been hatched to divide Sindh in the name of development of islands and vowed to resist all such attempts.

He said that after the islands, now murder of Karoonjhar hills was being planned and all such decisions were being taken in Chief Minister House. Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari knew it well, he said, urging protesters to raise slogans of ‘shame, shame’ against PPP chairman, which they did.

He said that Karoonjhar were not just hills from where granite could be extracted to mint money but they were cultural heritage and asset of Sindh. Karoonjhar hills were Sindh’s pride as they symbolised the province’s resistance movement against colonial powers, he said.

This important history could not be erased only for the sake of some stones. If hills were ‘murdered’ then it would be tantamount to be murder of 50 million Sindhis, he said.

He said that Sindhi people had already rejected the presidential ordinance on islands. The country’s president was supposed to uphold the constitution but he was working against it. Sindhi people would resist rulers at all levels and would not let them usurp their islands, he said, adding that PPP was part of this conspiracy.

He urged people to gather in Karachi on Nov 15 to record protest against the move and said that they were able hold a bigger public meeting than that of Pakistan Democratic Movement if they all gathered along with their friends. SAC’s movement was aimed at protecting Sindh’s resources and land, he said.

Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz-Bashir chairman Sanan Qureshi said that sons of the soil were ready to protect their motherland. People of Sindh would never accept the PIDA ordinance as the islands were historical and cultural heritage and nobody would be allowed to occupy them. Sindh was currently passing through a critical phase of its history, he said.

Awami Tehreek president Dr Rasool Bux Khaskheli said that Karoonjhar hills and islands were Sindh’s assets. People had given a mandate to PPP to protect their motherland but the party had betrayed them, he said.

He said that PPP was given the mandate to work for Sindh’s prosperity but it was doing contrary to it. He accused PPP of selling Sindh’s resources and heritage and alleged that prime minister and president had also breached trust of Sindhi people.

He said that if PTI government did not withdraw this ordinance then people of Sindh would go for courting arrest. More than one governments were working in Sindh in the shape of federal government projects, Karachi Coordination Committee, islands development and now expenditures of Rs460 billion to be received from Bahria Town would be overseen by a committee headed by a judge, he said.

Chairman of his own faction of Jeay Sindh Mahaz, Riaz Chandio, said that this peaceful protest had proved that islands were property of Sindh and they would be protected by all means.

He accused the Sindh government of surrendering powers it had obtained under 18th Amendment. PPP’s handing over K-IV project to federal government was enmity with Sindh, he said.

Awami Jamhoori Party president Vishnu Mal said that islands, cities and sea were property of Sindh and 50m Sindhis would protect their resources and heritage. Centre would not be allowed to “occupy” them, he said.

National Party Sindh chapter leader Taj Mari, Awami Workers Party Sindh president Bukshal Thallu, Porhiyat Muzahimat leader Masroor Shah, Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl leader Taj Mohammad Nahiyoon also spoke at the rally.

Published in Dawn, November 2nd, 2020