Former Ambassador M. Alam Brohi analyzes the situation in Sindh encompassing the wave of nationalism, PPP’s rule and the case of Sindh
- Sindhis, geographically and politically, cannot imagine a Sindh sans Karachi. By the dint of geography, interdependence and cultural and historical affiliation, the Sindh has become an indivisible entity
M. Alam Brohi
The Case of Sindh
The case of Sindh is different. The importance and prosperity of Sindh as a geographical entity has been dependent on the irrigation waters of River Indus and the coastal regions of Sindh, its busy seaports and industrial base in Karachi, Hyderabad and Noriabad lying between Karachi and Hyderabad. The gas and oil and mineral reservoirs discovered from the interior regions have been another source for prosperity of the province. Karachi has been the capital of Sindh since its fall to the British India. The main social and economic infrastructure of the province is concentrated in these two megacities. Sindh will be a headless body if these two big cities are taken out of it. Thus, these cities are inseparable from the province for political, ethnic, economic and cultural reasons.
Notwithstanding its large segment of Urdu speaking population, Hyderabad is a Sindhi speaking city with an overwhelming majority of the Sindhi population. They will never want it to be administratively or politically separated from the rest of Sindh. Similarly, Karachi has a mélange of populations of different ethnic, linguistic, and cultural backgrounds. The Urdu speaking population is concentrated in a few areas and is in minority if we count together the populations of the Sindhis, Katchhi Memons (old Sindhis speaking a dialect of Sindhi language) Baloch, Brohis, Punjabis, and Pathans. The city is surrounded by old and big villages of Baloch, Brohis and Sindhis. These villages are as old as the known history of the city. These segments of non-Urdu speaking population would never want the city to be taken out of Sindh and made a separate geographical and political entity. The city is intertwined with the interior Sindh in trade and business, communication, education, healthcare, supply of provisions, water and labour. The agricultural lands and orchards on the outskirts of the city that used to supply vegetables and fruits to it have been almost swallowed up by the mega housing schemes deepening the city’s dependence on the supply of provisions from the interior of the province.
Sindh will be a headless body if the two big cities are taken out of it. Thus, these cities are inseparable from the province for political, ethnic, economic and cultural reasons
Sindhis, geographically and politically, cannot imagine a Sindh sans Karachi. By the dint of geography, interdependence and cultural and historical affiliation, the Sindh has become an indivisible entity, and cannot be dissected without a bloody reaction from both pro-division and anti-division forces given the past protests and successful campaigns of Sindhis against the federal authority to get Karachi back as the capital city of Sindh which even the non-Sindhi speaking political and social leaders from city had per force supported.
Like all the big cities in the world, Karachi has become unwieldy with its enormous problems which are not as intractable as they look like. Many countries have addressed the problems facing their big cities by strengthening Local Governments and devolution of administrative, financial, policing powers to the elected Mayors and local councils and the Chief Executive Officers appointed by the central or provincial governments. Such self-contained and self-supported local governments as enforced in Tokyo, Istanbul, London, New York, Mexico, Kolkata, Bombay etc. could be studied and adopted with adjustments to cater to the local political conditions. The city generating huge revenue incomes deserves to have an effective local government system.
The PPP provincial administrations have failed to safeguard the provincial resources from the federal authority’s unlawful and undemocratic capture as we have explained in the preceding paragraphs nor have they displayed any ability to put these resources to an efficient use for the welfare of the people of Sindh. This is a sad betrayal on the part of the consecutive PPP Governments since 2008. The electricity generated in Sindh is taken into the national grid and resold to Sindh. Huge quantities of coal have been discovered in Tharparkar. Three power generating facilities at Hub, Bin Qasim and Sahiwal are run on the imported coal costing the country Rs.70000 per ton. This spikes the expenses of the power generation whereas the two power generation facilities under CPEC in Tharparkar are run on the coal mined locally. The federal authority has fixed the price of the Tharparkar coal at $27 or Rs.7500 and the province is paid royalty on the basis of this price.
The PPP provincial administrations have failed to safeguard the provincial resources from the federal authority’s unlawful and undemocratic capture
More than Punjab or any other province, Sindh has so far allocated huge tracts of land for corporate farming. The Gas and oil produced by Sindh and Balochistan is taken into national pool and resold to these provinces. Punjab has always tried to violate the Water Accords of 1991 in the cropping seasons. Now, the agreed structure of the Indus River System Authority has been tempered with subverting the effective representation of the provinces. The PPP provincial administrations do not seem to have put up any resistance to the federal authority’s unquenchable thirst for resources.
Could the concerns of common populace be mitigated?
The common man of Sindh has many concerns about the future of their new generations on political, economic and social and cultural counts. For the sake of our readers, we review and debate these issues under the above sub-heads:
The continuous rule of PPP with corrupt paraphernalia; the patron-client booty system in which only politically influential class and the known affiliates of the PPP are benefited at the cost of merit and rule-based appointments; the political arrogance and insensitivity to public problems developed by the ruling class; the shrinking political space for any political alternative; the lacking political will on the part of the non-PPP politicians to come together on one platform to put up a sustained resistance to PPP; the hanging sword of dividing Sindh into two provinces are some of the challenges faced by the people of the province. They are politically confused and hamstrung between federalists, and provincial nationalist and secessionists. The clan chiefs, traditional landlords, spiritual dynasties mostly riding the PPP bandwagon remain aloof from the problems and concerns of common man. The educated middle class swings between federalism and provincial nationalism. The extreme nationalism has crossed into secessionism. There is lack of a decisive will to chalk out a political course. The political inertia has taken hold of the political activists.
Economically, the people of Sindh have been helplessly witnessing the capture of the provincial resources by the ruling elite through their political and administrative influence; the growing nexus between the PPP and the establishment for the exploitation of the provincial resources and grabbing of provincial lands worth billions; the concentration of agricultural lands in few hands without any hope for redistribution or land reforms; the growth of poverty; the burgeoning population and the rising number of the unemployed youth; the small industrial sector concentrated in megacities with minimum chances for livelihood for young labour from the interior of Sindh; the deteriorating law and order situation discouraging further investment in the province; The dacoit raj in the riverine regions of the province under the patronage of politically and socially influential elements; the corruption and favoritism in the Benazir support program; the lack of small loans or financing for cattle farms or any such peasant friendly scheme; the displacement of the tenants from the lands allocated for corporate farming and big housing schemes; the improper and injudicious use of the surcharges paid by the Gas and Oil Companies to the local administrations for the welfare of the local populations; the rains and flash floods owing to the climate change and the lack of preventive measures by the provincial administrations have exasperated the economic woes of the people.
The people of Sindh have been helplessly witnessing the capture of the provincial resources by the ruling elite through their political and administrative influence
The Sindh economy is dependent on the agriculture sector. Agriculture remains backbone of the prosperity of Sindh. Sindh being lower riparian state has always suffered from the scarcity of water because of the chronic stealth of irrigation water from the Indus River System by the bigger province of Punjab. This dates back to development of the irrigation system on River Indus by the British Engineers. The study of the fact finding reports on the use of irrigation waters by British Engineer reveal a lot and laid bare the historic violation of the rights of lower riparian Sindh. The controversy between Punjab and other provinces over the apportionment of the irrigation waters of Indus River System continued bedeviling relations between the federal constituents of Pakistan until the year of 1991 in which the Water Apportionment Accords between the federal units was concluded and signed, and a regulator – Indus River System Authority – was created. The IRSA was placed under the Council of Common Interests.
The IRSA has held well since its creation. But now some powerful quarters desire to make far wider structural changes in the authority to serve their growing interests in corporate farming. The people of Sindh have resisted tooth and nail the construction of the Kalabagh Dam and building of new canals upstream for the past many decades. They have once again risen up against the new plan of tampering with the federal structure of IRSA and its constitutional status. The people of Sindh will never compromise on the irrigation waters of Indus River which they, thanks to the decades-long campaign of Rasool Bukhsh Palijo, consider as their lifeline and redline. Historically and culturally, Sindhis have a romance with Sindhu (Indus River) developed over millennia.
Read- Karoonjhar Mountain: Sindh Cabinet designates an area for granite mining
Socially and culturally Sindh is rotting under the outdated tribal system of medieval times. What the social and cultural landscape of Sindh presents is the division of the population of the province into many sub-tribes by Sardars and chiefs to strengthen their sway on it; the atmosphere of fear and insecurity the common populace lives in; the burgeoning industry of abductions for ransom particularly of the minority Hindus; abduction of Hindu girls, their forcible conversion to Islam and marriage to Muslim boys patronized by politically and spiritually influential dynasties; the corrupt Thana culture oppressing the lower tier of the population; the slow growth of the middle class; the crumbling educational and rural and semi-urban healthcare facilities in the public sector. Isn’t it dismal?
The deepening gap between the upper class, middle and lower class with the top class having access to elite hospitals, educational institutes and foreign scholarships and education for their children leaving the healthcare centers and schools in the public sector for the middle and the lower class has been hallmark of the society of Sindh. In the resultant culture of helplessness, the poverty stricken people seek divine help from peers, fakirs, so called spiritual guides, dargahs etc. Superstition is galore; ignorance endemic with the rampant health problems associated with unhygienic living and drinking contaminated water. The rising social crimes like honour killings, tribal warfare and retributive justice have crippled the society from within. The epidemic growth of Hepatitis-A, B, and C, and the growing menace of HIV and the increasing number of drug addicts have failed to raise the alarm bell and move the ruling class to take notice of these threats to the society.
The drug addiction has long ago seeped into the educational institutions menacing the health and future of the younger generation. The elite families and dynastic politicians which fill the Legislative Assemblies and corridors of the power are least bothered about the problems facing the common populace. What this selfish class is concerned about is their privileged position. They intentionally keep the common people under thumb depriving them of education, healthcare and a sustainable livelihood. They prefer to throw crumbs at them out of condescension while keeping them hostage to the patron-client political system.
The ruling class has successfully persuaded the already helpless and poor populace that their welfare in terms of the schooling of their children, tenancy of land, small jobs, and safety from the highhandedness of police, dacoits and goons is linked to unconditional subordination to their will. This has turned the people into a selfish and myopic lot who could not see beyond their individual petty advantages. The society, as a whole, is fast losing its sense of comprehension of the collective good.
Read: Amendment in Indus River System Authority Act: Save Sindh from Ruination
Sindh has been known for its religious tolerance. The Sufism has been the dominant religious belief. The Sufi saints were equally respected and followed by the Muslims and non-Muslims. Since decades, owing to the rising phenomenon of religious militancy particularly after the en mass Islamization of the secular laws by dictator Zia ul Haq, Sindh has also been gradually drifting into religious intolerance. The extremism arising from KPK and Punjab seems to be having a domino effect on the secular societies of Sindh and Balochistan. The recent events of the barbarous killing of the two educated persons suspected of blasphemy by the police in Balochistan and Sindh are very disturbing. The religious extremism caused 30 years of war in Europe and left many countries devastated. These wars were upended by the Westphalia Treaties of 1648. The European leaders rose to the occasion and injected a heavy dose of sanity in their societies. We have don’t have leaders of that caliber in our country but petty politicians who would are capable of rising and challenging the monstrosity of the religious extremism. The Mulla and Madrassa are getting strong year on year. The politicians are intimated by their street power and their capacity to create violent mob agitation on any religious issue. The political administrations are too weak to sustain the writ of the state. (Concludes)
Click here to read Part-1 , Part-2
_________________
The author is a former member of the Foreign Service of Pakistan and has served as Ambassador for seven years.
