HYDERABAD: A five-member interim joint action committee was formed at a meeting of the activists of political and nationalist parties, civil society representatives and others to safeguard interests of Sindh relating to islands, education, health and basic civic amenities.

The activists gathered at the local press club on Wednesday to form the committee and pledged to launch a struggle for achievement of its objectives. The body would focus on issues of basic amenities in rural and urban areas and support political movements for the rights of Sindh and to raise voice for provincial core issues.

Those attending the meeting included Human Rights Commission of Pakistan provincial coordinator Imdad Chandio, Jeay Sindh Mahaz vice chairman Hashim Khoso, Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (Bashir) leader Dr Niaz Kalani, Awami Workers Party Sindh president Bakhshal Thalho, Sindhi Adabi Sangat secretary Ahmed Solangi, Hyderabad Union of Journalists (Butt group) president Iqbal Mallah, Awami Jamhoori Party leader Aslam Pervez, Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum (PFF) chairman Mohammad Ali Shah, Prof Yaqoob Chandio, Taj Joyo, Jami Chandio, Sindh Taraqi-passand Party leader Hoat Khan Gadehi, Qaumi Awami Tehreek leader Dr Gulzar Jumani and others.

The five-member committee comprised of Jami Chandio, Imdad Chandio, comrade Bakhshal Thalho, Haseen Musarrat Shah and Mahesh Kumar. This interim body would work for three months to give a roadmap for the future struggle.

The meeting observed that people were experiencing the worst political, economic and social conditions the country ever witnessed. These conditions had made national, class and democratic conflicts more critical and ruling elite failed to address the situation and instead the elite was contributing to those conflicts in a dangerous manner, it said.

It said Sindh’s economic contribution to Pakistan was the highest and population-wise the province was the second largest province whereas its geographical position made it strategically sensitive and important. It said that due to those factors, crises of different nature in the country led to multiple and negative implications on Sindh and its people. Sindh had been facing those conditions for the past seven decades, the participants said.

The meeting said that those conflicts and their implications had again created a crises of existence, rights over resources, autonomy and integrity of Sindh. The meeting asserted that feudal mindset, power politics and opportunist class had not only denied the people of Sindh their right to basic amenities even in the 21st century, but they had posed a question mark over the integrity and autonomy of Sindh as well as protection of the permanent majority of the province.

The meeting pointed out that in the backdrop of those conditions, a forum like joint action committee was needed in Hyderabad like other cities of Sindh, which was formed on Wednesday. The joint action committee would launch a struggle against builder mafia on the outskirts and in rural parts of Hyderabad as far as allotment of land to builders was concerned.

The committee vowed to raise a strong voice for a better civic infrastructure in Hyderabad and to struggle for the rights of labourers belonging to permanent residents of Sindh. It would resist all those decisions of the Sindh government which are against legitimate interests of those communities living permanently in Sindh.

The meeting pledged to launch struggle against those decisions, policies and steps of the federation which undermined the autonomy, language and resources and was detrimental to cities of Sindh. The committee would oppose policies of the state and government which it considered anti-people, capitalist in nature and aimed at gaining corporate interests through sale of land, privatisation and environmental degradation in Sindh.

Published in Dawn, November 5th, 2020