DADU: The Awami Tehreek (AT) on Saturday held a conference to highlight the issues badly affecting the people of Sindh, and urged the Supreme Court to ensure supremacy of the Constitution in this regard.

It reiterated its strong reservations over allotment of hundreds of thousands of acres in the province to foreign investors, builders and other entities in the name of development, industrialisation and housing projects.

AT president Lal Jarwar, vice president Advocate Sajid Hussain Mahesar, general secretary Noor Ahmed Katiar and other leaders spoke at the conference, held in the local press club.

They condemned successive provincial governments’ practice of doling out Sindh’s highly expensive lands to local and foreign entities, as well as ‘bogus’ digital census and delimitations on the basis of its figures, human rights violations and rampant corruption all of which, they said, were badly affecting people of the province.

Rejects digital census, condemns allotment of lands to local builders and foreign investors

They appealed to the apex court to intervene and ensure supremacy of the Constitution, pointing out that Sindh was being robbed of its water share; illegal immigrants and outsiders were being settled here to change its demography; and corruption had plagued all provincial departments.

One poignant moment during the conference was observance of a two-minute silence over the Sept 28 tragedy in Mari Jalbani village of Sakrand where four people, two of them brothers, were gunned down in a Rangers-police action.

Participants in the conference expressed their deep concern over growing incidents of such human rights violations in Sindh.

The also called for an immediate halt to ‘auction’ of Sindh’s lands, and demanded that these lands be allotted to deserving landless farmers, instead.

The AT leaders stressed accountability of all those found involved in criminal activities.

They demanded an investigation into alleged corruption within the Gorakh Hills Authority.

The conference emphasised the need for fulfilment of government’s commitment to provide houses to the families rendered homeless in the 2022 rain and flood.

It deplored the damage being caused to historical, cultural and tourist sites in Sindh by vested interests and usurpation of mineral resources at Gorakh, Ganje Tikar, Karoonjhar and other such places in the province.

Lal Jarwar described the recent digital census as ‘bogus, illegal and unconstitutional’, alleging that it was designed with the aim of turning Sindhis into a minority within their own province. He accused the Pakistan Peoples Party that ruled over the province for about 15 years, of facilitating the ‘fraudulent’ census and denying Sindhis of their rightful governance.

Jarwar claimed that over 1.3 million acres of Sindh’s lands were being doled out to foreigners in the name of ‘agricultural revolution’. The lands included those situated in Dadu, Khairpur Nathan Shah and Johi, he noted.

The Awami Tehreek conference resolved to continue raising its voice against injustices being done to the province and intensify its struggle for the rights of its people regarding the critical questions of governance, land ownership and integrity.

Published in Dawn, October 1st, 2023