HYDERABAD, Feb 4: Participants of ‘Requirements for Sindh’s national unity” conference held here on Monday were unanimous in their opinion that unity of Sindhi-Urdu speaking people was the pre-requisite for survival of Sindh which was again at the centre stage of conspiracies being hatched against it internationally.

The gathering of Sindhi and Urdu speaking intellectuals, organised by MQM’s Sindh Intellectual Forum, was a largely attended show. Dr Farooq Sattar, MQM’s deputy convener of coordination committee, Sindhi nationalist leader Abdul Wahid Arisar, Yusuf Shaheen, Khaki Joyo, Ashfaq Mangi, Ghazi Salahuddin, Dilshad Bhutto, Raheem Dad Rahi, Khawaja Rafiq Anjum, Prof Saher Ansari, Ghulam Rabbani Agro, Yusuf Jamal, and others were present.

Addressing the conference on telephone from London, chief of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) Altaf Hussain warned the people of Sindh of international conspiracies, being hatched against Sindh. He said the people should not consider these warnings mere rhetoric. He quoted an article by F. Harrison titled “Putting Pakistan together again”, and published in the International Herald Tribune.

He called for re-evaluating those assets of Sindh which were disposed of at throwaway prices. He urged the communities to remain united to face any onslaught. He said he was sure that if they stood united then no one could dare break Sindh or amalgamate it in any other province. He asked other communities ‘living in Sindh but supporting other provinces to review their approach.’

He said that clouds of danger were hovering over Pakistan.

‘It is ironic that 60 years down the line we are discussing national unity, but feudal and military or civil bureaucrats remain closely associated with one another”, he said while calling for complete harmony among Sindhi and Urdu speaking people. He asked why MQM and Urdu speaking people were asked to disclose their stand on different issues. “We don’t have to migrate from Sindh now but adjustment between two cultures takes time”, he said.

While demanding of the federal government to re-evaluate oil and gas or other resources disposed of at throwaway price, he said their royalty should also be given to Sindh and it should be provided its due share of water and NFC award. “We should unite ourselves before the time is passed”, he asserted.

He said that he had reservations over Benazir’s return to Pakistan and spoke to her over phone. “She had told me that she will have a detailed meeting with him in London and I asked her to be careful.

Intellectual and journalist Yusuf Shaheen agreed with Altaf Hussain that a conspiracy was being hatched to pit two communities against each other again and appreciated that MQM was the first to include provincial autonomy in its agenda.

Abdul Wahid Arisar said Sheikh Ayaz had told him that Sindhi and Urdu speaking people enjoyed common bond and culture.

He spoke about Josh Malihabadi, Hisamuddin Rashidi and G. M. Syed in the backdrop of relations of two communities. “Hyderabad is heart of Sindh. We will give you a sun setting in Jamshoro and a sun rising in Chachhro”, he said. He said it was tragic that nature in some cases divided regions but here it divided a nation.

An academician Raheem Dad Rahi called for serious initiatives and said that Mohajirs have common bonds with Sindhis. “We enjoyed same cultural and social bond geographically so we have to see how we can protect Sindh’s frontiers”, he said.

Jabbar Kehar observed that if Sindh achieved national unity it would sink vested interests of Punjab and that’s why conspiracies were hatched. He counted feudalism, pseudo intellectualism and Islamisation as main hurdles in the way of desired unity.

Dilshad Bhutto said that history creates heroes as it did in case of Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai and G. M. Syed. “If history is making Altaf Hussain a hero then who are we to object”, he said.