Sindh today is not suffering from lack of resources or intellect, but from the lack of courage
- When religion is weaponised, law is auctioned, drugs are normalized, minorities are abandoned, and the Constitution is quietly mutilated, silence becomes the greatest crime.
Noor Muhammad Marri Advocate | Islamabad
Thar, in particular, is being devastated, not by fate but by a new form of internal colonization. Coal projects have poisoned water sources, turning life-sustaining wells into acidic and saline death traps, yet this destruction is marketed as development. The desert is no longer only dry; it is deliberately made uninhabitable. In this process, the most vulnerable—religious minorities, especially Dalits and so-called untouchables—are pushed to the edge. They are left with only two options: migrate or convert. Young, innocent girls are kidnapped and forcibly converted to Islam, and religion is cynically used as a shield by a vicious circle to escape the reach of law. This is not faith; it is organized crime wearing religious clothing. And yet, there is no strong protest recorded anywhere except a few statements and scattered rallies.
Drugs are being pushed into every corner of Sindh with frightening efficiency. From villages to cities, narcotics have become the most profitable business. Everyone knows that postings of SPs and SHOs are decided through auctions; law enforcement itself has been commercialized. District Thatta is going through traumatic conditions—drug trafficking has destroyed families, and mouth cancer is so common that it has almost become normalized. The entire coastal belt is under the control of the mafia, but again, no protest. Fisherfolk are dispossessed, livelihoods are crushed, land and sea are looted, yet silence remains our collective response.
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The canal issue, once projected as an existential question for Sindh, has suddenly disappeared. Not because it was resolved in the interest of the people, but because differences between the ruling elite and the establishment were settled. Political bargaining replaced public interest. Power was adjusted, silence was purchased, and even the Kashmir government was handed over to the PPP as part of this settlement. Principles vanished the moment power arrangements were finalized.
After the 18th Amendment, how much financial transfer has actually come to the Sindh government? No one knows. Where has the money gone? There is no transparent audit, no serious accountability, and once again, no protest. Provincial autonomy was promised as a remedy, but autonomy without accountability has only strengthened feudal capture. Now the 26th and 27th Amendments have shaken the foundations of the 1973 Constitution itself, yet all are mealy-mouthed. Where are those constitutional experts who once wrote books and delivered long lectures on federalism in Pakistan? Why this sudden silence? Either these amendments do not affect the federation at all, or perhaps foreign funding has not yet been released. Intellectual resistance, it seems, is also conditional.
Eighteen years of continuous so-called ‘democratic rule’ have now outpaced even Zia-ul-Haq’s martial law, yet our sages remain silent. Dictatorship at least declared itself honestly; today authoritarianism hides behind elections. In Northern Sindh, dacoits effectively run their own governments, but we rarely cry for those victims. However, if a Sindhi in Karachi slips on a banana peel, we immediately raise the slogan that Karachi is being snatched. Our outrage is selective, guided by identity politics rather than justice.
Not a single word is spoken against the PPP government. Not against corruption, not against collapse of governance, not against moral decay. Instead, we remain busy conducting melas and musical programs and cultural rituals. Culture has been reduced to an escape mechanism, not a tool of resistance. Poetry is celebrated, but truth is avoided. Songs are sung, but injustice is tolerated.
This silence is not innocence; it is complicity. Sindh today is not suffering from lack of resources or intellect, but from lack of courage. When religion is weaponised, law is auctioned, drugs are normalized, minorities are abandoned, and the Constitution is quietly mutilated, silence becomes the greatest crime. Until we find the moral strength to question power—regardless of party, slogan, or personality—Thar will continue to burn, minorities will continue to flee, drugs will continue to kill, and we will continue to applaud ourselves in cultural gatherings while our society collapses around us.
Read: Unemployment Fuels Social, Political Turmoil
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Noor Muhammad Marri is an Advocate and Mediator, based Islamabad
