KARACHI, June 28: Sindh is not being treated fairly and its income, land, business, jobs and even water and other resources are being used more for the benefit of other provinces.
In the federal budget Sindh is rated at third position after Punjab and the NWFP in the allocation of development funds although it provides more than 75 per cent of the funds of the federation.
This was the observation of the recently formed Sindh Solidarity Council at its first meeting held at the residence of Sardar Mumtaz Ali Bhutto in which a 13-member executive council was also formed.
The members of the executive council are: Illahi Bakhsh Soomro, convener; Kunwar Idrees, secretary. Members: Sardar Mumtaz Ali Bhutto, Rais Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi, Abdul Hafeez Pirzada, Yusuf Haroon, Hameeda Khuhro, Irshad Abdul Kadir, Maqbool Rehmitoola, Syed Jalal Mehmood Shah, Yusuf Leghari, Yusuf Masti Khan and Ibrahim Joyo.
Taking note of the unfair treatment with the province, the meeting demanded that in the interest of solidarity and prosperity of Pakistan, Sindh must now be given a just and equitable share as the biggest earner and contributor.
In one of the resolutions adopted at the meeting, which was presided over by Sindh National Front chief Mumtaz Ali Bhutto, it was decided to consult leading legal experts to take up the Thal canal matter to the Supreme Court under the cover of violation of human rights.
Recalling that Thal canal which will extract more than nine thousand cusecs water from the River Indus, the meeting said that although it might bring additional 1.5 million areas of barren land under cultivation in Punjab, but it will render double that acreage of fertile land barren in Sindh, which has already lost more than 3.5 million acres of fertile land due to water shortage and adverse flow of seawater.
By another resolution the meeting noted that Sindh remained underdeveloped and backward province overridden by poverty, illiteracy and diseases.
“The government must pay special attention to Sindh as the largest earning province and give it the priority that it deserves in allocation of funds.”
Referring to the injustices to Sindh in finance commission awards of the past, it said collection of funds on the basis of income and distribution thereof on the basis of population amounted to penalization of the province.
The SSC through another resolution criticized, what it said, the government’s failure in controlling lawlessness in Sindh and said that police remained defeated by the outlaws. The meeting called upon the government to bring genuine reforms in the field of law-enforcement to reactivate the police, remove corruption amongst them and motivate them to fight crime rather than terrorise innocent people.
Referring to the discontent and instability in the country, the SSC observed that it was due to an omnipotent federal government which has strangled hold on the provinces.
“This is not only unfair but in negation of the promise made by the founder of Pakistan to the provinces that they will be autonomous and sovereign”, the meeting noted.