ISLAMABAD, Oct 17: The Sindh Democrats Forum (SDF), a group of intellectuals, writers, development professionals, academics and civil society activists, has sent a letter to the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) chairperson Benazir Bhutto drawing her attention to the “sufferings of Sindhi people under the present military regime” and asking her to play her role to protect the rights of the province.

“Being the leader of a major political party that always obtains a large number of votes, and in the case of Sindh, overwhelming mandate of the Sindhi people, we feel that it is the moral and political duty of the PPP leadership to assume the role of rescuing Sindhi people in these difficult times,” says the letter, a copy of which was made available to Dawn by ARD’s deputy information secretary Munir Ahmed Khan.

It says that “as a result of the last seven years’ military rule and absence of democratic system in Pakistan, the economy of the country, particularly of Sindh, has declined further. And the social, political, educational and health sectors of Sindh have gone down to the lowest developmental level. Its poverty ratio is high as documented by the IFIs and independent research institutions.”

The SDF fears that through “rapid population transfer to Sindh from other provinces and countries and unabated control of important urban centres by the MQM, it is planning to rig the 2007 general elections to impose a non-Sindhi chief minister on Sindh against the principle of Sindhi people’s right to rule over their motherland.”

Moreover, it says: “The sale of land, islands and other assets of Sindh worth trillions of rupees, dividing Sindh to create fiefdoms for assorted feudal lords, transfer of financial resources of Sindh to Punjab and other provinces through unfair NFC awards, denial of development investment in Sindh, increasing corruption and rampant violations of human rights are just a few important manifestations of the gravity of crises for Sindhis.”