Category — SINDH NATIONALISM

The Dawn, May 18
LARKANA, May 17: Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz chairman Basheer Khan Qureshi said on Monday that despite Supreme Court having taken suo motu notice of enforced disappearance of party leader Akash Mallah and worker Noor Mohammad Khaskheli, the government was not ready to release them.

Addressing participants of a procession at Royal Chowk here, Mr Qureshi said that he feared threat to their lives and alleged that the government was trying to release accused in JSQM worker Mushtaque Khaskheli’s murder case. Khaskheli was killed when a procession led by him in Karachi in July last year was fired upon.

Activists of JSQM held demonstrations across the province to voice protest against enforced disappearances of their colleagues and undue delay in dispensation of justice in Khaskheli murder case.

Mr Qureshi said that certain conspirators were out to create a rift among Sindhi leadership.

He criticised local Hesco managers for what he saw as artificial power shutdown of 14 to 16 hours. It had compounded hardships for people and inflicted huge losses on traders, he said.

He urged Hesco managers to stop loadshedding in Larkana and other parts of the province and warned that JSQM workers and general public would surround the office of the superintendent engineer of Hesco if duration of loadshedding was not reduced.

A complete strike was observed in Larkana on a call given by the local chapter of the JSQM. All main trade centres remained shut and traffic was thin on the roads.

In Hyderabad, JSQM workers took out a procession and held a demonstration outside the press club.

They criticised acute shortage of water and artificial power loadshedding in Sindh, warning if their demands were not accepted the party would launch a movement throughout the province.

In Nawabshah, JSQM activists held a demonstration outside the press club.

Local leaders of the party said that Akash and Noor Mohammed had been missing for a long time and alleged that they were picked up by agencies.

In Naushahro Feroze, Moro, Tharushah, Bhirya city, Kandiaro, Mehrabpur and in other towns of the district JSQM activists took out processions and held demonstrations http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/national/enforced-disappearance-govt-not-ready-to-free-jsqm-men-despite-court-move-qureshi-850

By Habib Khan Ghori in The Dawn, Jan 21
KARACHI: Several Sindhi nationalist parties frustrated by what they view as a ‘change’ in the Pakistan People’s Party’s original agenda have intensified their efforts to form a single platform to launch a joint political struggle for the rights of the province and its people.

Shah Mohammad Shah, head of the Save Sindh Movement (SSM) — part of a five-party alliance — and Saleem Jan Mazari of the Sindh Awami Alliance told a press conference at the Karachi Press Club on Wednesday that they agreed to form the platform quickly and contest the upcoming local government elections jointly across Sindh. Pressing issues confronting Sindh were also discussed at length at a meeting held on Wednesday at the residence of the SSM chief.

The SSM groups together the Sindh Awami Tehreek, Sindh National Front, Sindh United Party, Sindh Taraqqi Pasand Party and Save Sindh Movement.

The meeting, they said, decided to bring other nationalist forces to the platform.

Mr Shah told journalists that several proposals on safeguarding the rights and interests of Sindh and its people were made by SAA leaders at the meeting and he would put up the set of proposals to a committee having representation of the SSM component parties for approval as the agenda of the proposed broader election alliance. The SAA leaders, he said, intended to convince leaders of all nationalist parties of Sindh to form such an alliance.

Regarding the perceived PPP policy shift, Mr Shah recalled that the PPP had been in the forefront of the Sindh-based parties’ struggle for the rights of the province before it reached the power corridors, but now it was subjecting the people of Sindh to excesses. The PPP, he said, had been opposing the greater Thal canal project for years while it was an opposition party but now when it was ruling over the country, it not only stopped opposing the project but also allocated Rs15 billion for the construction of the canal.

Salim Jan Mazari said water, Sindh’s rights over its resources and a fair census were some of the major issues confronting the province. “While wrong census figures have been registered with regard to the urban and rural population of Sindh, 60 per cent of the budget is being allocated to the 40 per cent urban population,” he claimed, adding that the 60 per cent rural population was given 40 per cent share in budgetary allocations. Double entries and omissions in the voters lists based on wrong census figures were also a major issue leading to the political exploitation of a majority of the Sindhi people.

He demanded that a fair census should be held under the supervision of the army and the judiciary.

In reply to a question, Mr Mazari said that “anyone living in Sindh is a Sindhi whatever his mother tongue may be.”

Welcoming the independence of the judiciary, the nationalist leaders lauded the Supreme Court’s recent judgments, particularly on the National Reconciliation Ordinance, and said this had rekindled the hope for the restoration of provinces’ rights.

Mujeeb Pirzada, Maqbool Shaikh, retired Capt Haleem Siddiqui, Irfanullh Marwat, Irfan Gul Magsi, Sardar Manzoor Panhwar, Sardar Ali Gauhar, Ali Mehar and Amanullah Talpur were among the others present at the press conference. http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/local/13+karachi-sindhi-nationalists-intensify-efforts-for-single-platform-110-za-02