KARACHI, May 29: Sindh is an indivisible constituent state of the country and any attempt to carve out a new province from it will amount to breaking up Pakistan.

This was the gist of speeches delivered by over a dozen speakers at the Sindh Solidarity Conference held under the auspices of the Sindh United Party on Tuesday.

The conference, presided over by SUP chief Syed Jalal Mehmoud Shah, was attended by nationalists, intellectuals, and representatives of political parties and civil society.

The thrust of speeches was that Sindh was united and would remain so for all time to come.

The speakers alleged that the ruling coalition raised the bogey of a Mohajir province to divert public attention from maladministration, corruption and terrorism over the past four-and-a-half years.After a five-hour deliberation, a declaration issued on Tuesday evening observed that Sindh was destroyed by the present ruling coalition for the sake of power and its financial interests.

Accusing the ruling coalition of conspiring to divide the people on the basis of language and ethnicity to fulfill their nefarious designs in the coming elections, it warned that the brutal killing of people in the attacks on the Mohabbat-i-Sindh rally and in Lyari operations could lead to a civil war.

One of the 14 resolutions adopted at the conference held the MQM and PPP responsible for orchestrating the attacks on the rally and demanded the immediate arrest of the culprits and their trial in anti-terrorism courts and payment of adequate compensation to the families of the victims.

The MQM’s ‘militant wing’ must be disbaded and wall chalking, posters, hoarding and graffiti against the unity of Sindh be removed and all those involved be brought to book, the resolution said.

Seeking implementation of a Supreme Court decision in letter and spirit, another resolution described the Lyari operation as a way to punish innocent people for putting up resistance against terrorists.

Referring to the tortured body of Jeay Sindh Muttahida Mahaz leader Muzaffar Bhutto recently found near Hyderabad, the conference by another resolution observed that the issue of missing persons had reached alarming proportions. Condemning such acts of violence, the conference demanded that all ‘missing persons’ in Sindh be freed immediately and appealed to the apex court to take notice of missing persons in Sindh.

The conference also condemned the brutal killing of innocent people in an attack on a bus near Qazi Ahmad in Nawabshah.

A resolution on local government stated that despite the revival of Sindh Local Government Ordinance, 1979, the government was violating the law on the pretext of transition. It demanded the immediate enforcement of the law.

Referring to the judiciary, the conference observed that the superior judiciary was bereft of representation of Sindhi-speaking judges and appealed to the judicial commission to take notice of this discrimination and appoint judges in the High Court of Sindh. The conference was critical of induction /deputation, absorbing and retaining illegally hundreds of officers from the federal government and autonomous bodies in defiance of a Supreme Court ruling and demanded implementation of the apex court decision.

By another resolution, the moot noted that the Sindh government failed to utilise even 50 per cent of the ADP funds and demanded NAB authorities to take notice of massive corruption and register cases against cabinet members and officials involved in frauds.

The conference also accused the government of failing to inform people about the total amount received on account of the NFC share from a divisible pool; to have equal ownership of gas and oil with the federal government under Article 172 of the constitution and mobilise the tax base, including taxes on agriculture income, property, estate duty, capital gain tax resulting in loss of billions to the province.

The declaration also stated: “The Sindh government is not being run by cabinet but by an unelected private person and brother of President and this is an affront to the mandate of people of Sindh. Sindh has become a family concern of one family.

“Lyari operation was also ordered from Bilawal House and Governor House. Condemning such unconstitutional acts of PPP, the resolution noted that Sindh cabinet is not responsible to elected Sindh assembly but one unelected person whose word has become a law in the province.”

The conference appealed to the people to hold the PPP accountable for this unlawful practice and also urged the judiciary to take notice of this sorry state of affairs in Sindh. The participants included Syed Ghaus Ali Shah, Senator Shahi Syed, Yusuf Musti Khan, Shah Muhammad Shah, Dr Quadir Magsi, Asadullah Bhutto, Khalid Mehmood Soomro, Ghualm Murtaza Jatoi, Nadir Akmal Leghari, Mehtab Akbar Rashdi, Muhammad Domki, Syed Zafar Ali Shah, Dr Malik, Quadir Ranto, Dr Niaz Kalani, Malik Qayyom, Comrade Azhar Jatoi, Karamat Ali, Ibrahim Joyo and Iqbal Haider.