HYDERABAD, Dec 4: Eminent writers, intellectuals, professionals, lawyers and scholars have expressed resentment over the delay in convening the Sindh Assembly session.
In a statement issued here on Wednesday, they strongly condemned the undemocratic and unconstitutional act of the federal government of depriving the elected members of the Sindh Assembly of their legitimate right to choose a government of their choice.
They said, “It reconfirms that Islamabad has no respect for the democratic mandate of the people of Sindh and it wants to run the province through remote control, treating it as a colony as it used to treat the people of former East Pakistan.”
They said that the delay in convening the Sindh Assembly session had no moral, democratic, and political justification, but it was an obvious attempt by Islamabad to impose a government of its choice on Sindhi.
They said that history had shown that such a government had always sold the rights of the province and the central government had used it as a vehicle to impose anti-Sindh decisions on the province or as a cover to legalize the illegal and illegitimate decisions of Islamabad.
They pointed out that the water accord of 1991 and the National Finance Commission Award of 1991 were glaring examples, which were imposed on Sindh against the will of the Sindh people through the illegal government of Jam Sadiq.
They said, “This time by imposing the puppet government on Sindh, the central government wants to get the approval of the Kalabagh Dam and implement other anti-Sindh decision, such as the new NFC award, allotment of lands to retired generals, occupation of Super Highway land, dismissal of Sindhi employees and increasing the settlement of people from the other provinces in Sindh.”
The intellectuals and writers maintained that by imposing such illegal government, the central government also wanted to have dummy representation of Sindh on ECNEC, governing boards of PIA, NHA, Railways, and Irsa, and it wanted to deprive Sindh of its legitimate share in the development funds.
They observed that weak ministers and imposed representatives could not raise voice against these injustices in vital decision-making bodies.
They warned that the people of Sindh were now well aware of such cheap tactics, used by the central government against the legitimate rights of Sindh, and they would not remain silent on these games, being played by the central government against Sindh.
They condemned Islamabad for indulging in political manoeuvres to strengthen the feudal lords and the turncoats.
They said, “Islamabad stands totally exposed as it has allowed the formation of government in the three provinces but denies the people of Sindh to have their provincial government elected freely and fairly by their elected members,” and added, “This action is sheer discrimination against the Sindhi people.”
They called upon the world human rights bodies, mainly the UN Human Rights Commission, to pressure Islamabad to respect the democratic mandate of Sindh, and allow its elected members to form the provincial government according to the recognized norms of democracy.
The signatories to the joint statement included Ibrahim Joyo, Mushtaq Meerani, Mohammad Yousuf Laghari, Hameed Sindhi, Nazir Ahmed Memon, Abdul Hameed Jaffery, Dr Aftab Qureshi, Prof Qalander Shah, Dr Mir Amanullah Talpur, Ayaz Latif Palejo, and Barkat Ali Chohan.