Text of a communication, G. M. Sayed, Leader of Sindh Peoples Front, forwarded to Speaker of Sindh Legislative Assembly for submission to Governor of Sindh under Rule No: 115 of the assembly, in September 1953.
September 1953.
His Excellency, the Governor of Sind,
Karachi.
May it please your Excellency!
The part played by the province of Sind* in the achievement of Pakistan, and the contribution she has since been making towards building it up are so outstanding that it is not even necessary to mention them when a correspondingly appropriate place is urged for her in the Social, Cultural, Economic and Political set-up of our country.
It was Sind, first and last, which on her own initiative, expressed herself officially in favor of the establishment of Pakistan, nay demanded it, through her legislative Assembly.
It was Sind, again, which, with all love and solicitousness in her heart, invited the Government of Pakistan to have a sojourn under her roof for as long as it was necessary, and, almost with a parental tenderness and foresight, spent tens of lacs of rupees, and built hundreds and thousands of houses for the office and residential needs of those who were coming as her esteemed guests.
It was Sind which opened her doors to the riots-stricken Beharees* in their tens of thousands-the early vanguard of the subsequent armies of political refugees from India-, and did everything possible promptly to give them comfort and solace, they so badly needed.
It was Sind, again, which received with open arms the early post-partition masses of her poor and helpless immigrant brethren, and immediately started absorbing them within her fold, and owning them up as her own kith and kin.
It is Sind, again, whose doors are somehow being kept open even now for, more or less, a ceaseless influx of immigrants from all directions.
It should, then, be natural under the circumstances, to expect that the Province of Sind must have received not only a fair but generous treatment in the Scheme of things in the initial founding and subsequent dispensation of which she has had such a great hand.
To the great sorrow of Sind, however, the actual state of affairs is quite the opposite. It is indeed difficult to contemplate Sind’s present situation without feeling wholly uneasy for her future.
In face of Sind’s most spirited opposition unequivocally and unanimously expressed through her Legislative Assembly, her political organizations including the Muslim League, and her entire press and public platforms, Sind was geographically, politically, socially and culturally dismembered. The grievous loss to which Sind was subjected by separating Karachi and its vast environs from her is beyond compensation. The Capitalized and revenue assets comprising the financial aspect of Sind’s loss alone amount to more than a hundred crore of rupees. The question of compensation even for this material part of Sind’s loss no more worries the Government of Pakistan: what Sind has suffered socially, culturally and politically by this dismemberment is literally incalculable.
The subsequent treatment meted out to Sind in Karachi is all the more painful to recount. She had to quit her own palatial Assembly Buildings, and move herself to the old, rickety Barracks after making them habitable at her own cost: and for being allowed this luxury of a barrack-roof she was called upon to pay and is actually paying rent to the Government of Pakistan. Nearly half of Sind Chief Court’s premises have been, without any consideration for the sanctity of that august institution, unauthorized occupied by the Ministry of Commerce, Government of Pakistan, who refuse to pay even their own monthly Electricity consumption bills. The Federal University of Karachi summarily finished Sindhi as one of the languages for taking the University Examinations. The Secondary Board of Education for Federal Area have adopted their High School syllabus in such a form, that Sindhi children are left with no option but to drop either the English Language or their mother Language as a subject of their studies. Sindhi Primary Education in the Federal Area, instead of expanding, has actually contracted. In disregard to the assurances solemnly given to Sind, at the time of the separation of Karachi, Sindhis are being eliminated from the services in the Karachi Administration.
Autonomy of Sind is reduced to such a farce that she is left with very little discretion in the disposal and arrangement of her internal affairs.
Out of Sind’s only 5 seats in the Constituent Assembly and Federal Legislature consisting of 79 members in all, one remains, at the moment, vacant, the second is occupied by a gentleman who on account of Karachi’s separation from Sind has no more the right to represent Sind and on the third sits a gentleman from Bombay whose only association with Sind is that very seat itself. Whereas a small province like the N. W.F.P. has two cabinet seats in the Government of Pakistan, Sind has only one, and that one too is occupied by a handpicked gentleman with no public sanction whatsoever behind him. After the demise of Shaikh Ghulam Hussain Hidaytullah, Sind has not had the good fortune of seeing any one of her sons as a Governor of any Province in Pakistan. Out of nearly a score of ambassadorial and consular posts, Sind doesn’t have any. Vast areas of Sind’s valuable fertile land are being exposed for colonization by outsiders. In the matters of higher administrative Services, grant of Licenses for Import and Export Trade, Military recruitment, and allocation of central funds for agricultural, Industrial, Educational, Social and Cultural development of Provinces, interests of Sind are, more often than not, being totally ignored by the Government of Pakistan.
On any impartial consideration of the history of Pakistan and the part played in it by the Province of Sind, it could be easily established that Sind merits a better and fairer treatment than the one she has been getting so far at the hands of the powers that are. It is therefore a high time that this step-motherly attitude to Sind is reviewed and appropriately changed as early as possible.
This Assembly is of the view that (a) Separation of the “Karachi Federal Area” from Sind was in violation of the terms and conditions of the Lahore Resolution of the then All India Muslim League, on the sole basis of which Sind originally became a party to the Pakistan movement, and (b) The Sind Legislative Assembly of 1948 that gave its subsequent consent to this dismemberment of Sind had no right of any kind to do so, as it had neither asked for, nor had it received any such mandate or authority from the people of Sind at the time of its election in 1946. Under the circumstances, Sind should either get back what it has lost together with adequate compensation for her capitalized and revenue assets in this area which she could not utilize for this period, or an early referendum should be made among the people of Sind on this issue considered in all its implications such as the terms and conditions on the basis of which the area should or should not be given up by Sind.
This Legislative Assembly, being further of the view that the province of Sind, from historical, geographical, economic, linguistic cultural viewpoints constitutes a distinct nationality, believes that she, as such, possesses:
(a) The right to have equal representation with other similar nationalities of Pakistan on the Legislative organs of the State;
(b) The sole right to man all the services within her own boundaries;
(c) The proportionate right to the Federal Services, including the Defence Services;
(d) The sole right to the appropriation and use of all her natural resources, and all her industrial and commercial possibilities;
(e) The right to receive education upto the highest standard in her own language;
(f) The right to a single compact political life of all the Sindhi speaking population living in areas geographically contiguous to each other, such as Sind including Karachi Federal Area, Khairpur State, parts of Bahawalpur, Lasbella State, etc., and
(g) All such other political, economic cultural and other rights to which a people forming a distinct nationality are entitled on the basis of the universally recognized principle of the self-determination of nationalities.
This Legislative Assembly of the Province of Sind, accordingly, submits that your Excellency may be pleased to convey its view and feelings as are expressed herein above to His Excellency the Governor General of Pakistan for his gracious consideration, for which act of your Excellency’s kindness this Assembly will remain grateful.
______________________
(Published by Sindh Quarterly magazine in 1977)
*Sindh was spelt as Sind at that time.
*Beharees – Biharis
