THE picture of Sindh that emerges with people’s experience and through the media is that there is no peace in the province.…[The issues include] tribal feuds, lawlessness and kidnappings; the state has failed to fulfil its responsibility to protect citizens. But the home department painted another picture during a briefing to the Sindh cabinet. Additional Chief Secretary Waseem Ahmed Khan disclosed that except for Karachi, there was no lawlessness in the province.… Does the Home Department consider that barring Karachi, Sindh’s law and order is not its responsibility? … The day the secretary was saying all is well in Sindh, four persons were kidnapped while travelling from Sukkur to Shikarpur. How odd that the home department has failed to see the daily bloodshed resulting from tribal feuds.

… Perhaps home department officials have no time to go through the newspapers or watch the news, which show the real picture. This incorrect briefing by a responsible officer should have led to action against him. This did not happen. When this is the position of such a high officer, what can one expect from the department? If negligence and omission or commission are not even admitted, how can they be corrected? … Such officers, who hide the real situation, are responsible for the poor governance in Sindh.

Such an incorrect briefing and the concealing of facts amounts to misleading the cabinet. Due to misleading reports, rulers have been claiming good governance. When high officials of the home department are unaware about kidnappings in the province, bloody clashes, terrorism and looting, depending on them seems quite unwise. We express our concern over this misinformation.—(Nov 18)

Selected and translated by Sohail Sangi.