Awami Tehreek & Sindhiyani Tehreek Warn of 1971-Like Crisis Over Proposed 28th Amendment: "An Attack on the Country
Chehra WebDesk
Leaders of Awami Tehreek and Sindhiyani Tehreek warned that the proposed 28th Constitutional Amendment, reportedly including provisions for new provinces, revisions to the NFC Award, and a new local-government structure, would be strongly resisted across Sindh, describing it as “an attack on the country and an attempt to push Pakistan towards conditions similar to 1971.”
Karachi
A press conference at the Karachi Press Club was addressed by Advocate Vasand Thari, Central President of Awami Tehreek; Umrah Samoo, Central President of Sindhiyani Tehreek; Noor Ahmed Khatiar, Central Senior Vice President of Awami Tehreek; Advocate Naveed Abbas Kalhoro, Central President of Sindhi Shagird Tehreek and Advocate Koonj Lashari, Central Organizer of Sindhi Girls Student Tehreek and Advocate Kainat Dahri.
They said that Honourable journalist brothers,
As you are well aware, the current PML-N and PPP coalition government has rapidly amended the Constitution, and through the 26th and 27th Amendments has rendered the superior judiciary ineffective and paralysed. By granting lifelong immunity to specific individuals, they have not only insulted the Constitution, the law, justice, equality, international principles, and fundamental human rights, but also have imposed the worst form of democratic martial law in the name of democracy. This is a new shape of martial law. PECA Act, Anti-Terrorism Amendment Act, SIFC, and the Board of Amendment Act 2023 are all tools of this new martial law.
Now, reports suggest that the proposed 28th Constitutional Amendment includes provisions for creating new provinces, reducing provincial shares in the NFC Award, and introducing a new local-government system. We believe this is part of the establishment’s old conspiracy to divide Sindh. For a long time, Sindh has been pushed towards division through MQM. MQM’s terrorists—who should have been in jail for heinous crimes—have been brought back into politics and installed as representatives in the National Assembly, Sindh Assembly, and Senate.
Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, Farooq Sattar, Mustafa Kamal and other MQM leaders are campaigning to divide Sindh. Shamefully, Sindh’s Governor Kamran Tessori declares that he is first a worker of MQM and only then the Governor of Sindh. The establishment has selected terrorists and placed them over Sindh’s chest by giving them important offices. These terrorists shed the blood of innocent Sindhis, Balochs, Pashtuns and Seraikis for decades in Karachi and Hyderabad. From burning hundreds of workers alive in the Baldia factory, to the massacre of 12 May, to the attack of 12 Rabi-ul-Awwal — MQM’s terrorists have been involved in numerous terrorist incidents. Through them, Sindh is being torn apart as part of a conspiracy against the country. On the other hand, a specific media group owner from Lahore, Mian Aamir Mehmood, has been tasked with running the campaign for new provinces. Even during General Musharraf’s era, a Lahore-based media owner was used to run a campaign supporting the Kalabagh Dam. We believe that a media owner or media group campaigning for or a deciding Sindh is against journalistic principles and against the interests of the country’s unity.
Honourable journalist brothers,
If PPP, PML-N, MQM and the establishment attempt to divide Sindh through the 28th Constitutional Amendment, no person in Sindh will tolerate such anti-Sindh and anti-Pakistan legislation. We wish to clearly convey to the rulers that Sindh is the sacred homeland of the Sindhi people for thousands of years. The Sindh Assembly passed the resolution in 1943 that led to the creation of Pakistan — it was Pakistan that emerged from Sindh, not the other way around. If the rulers tamper with the very existence of Sindh, the consequences will be extremely dangerous. The establishment and its sponsored rulers must refrain from creating a situation similar to that of 1971.
Honourable journalist brothers,
PPP’s rulers have repeatedly betrayed the Sindhi people and stabbed Sindh in the back. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto committed acts of betrayal against Sindh for the sake of becoming Prime Minister. Along with General Ayub, he sold Sindh’s rivers — Ravi, Sutlej, and Beas — to India, depriving Sindh of its waters. Through the black law DPR, writers, poets, journalists and political leaders of Sindh were imprisoned.
Today again, PPP’s leadership is ready to commit every undemocratic and anti-Sindh action just to make Bilawal Bhutto Zardari the Prime Minister. Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah and other ministers first lie — for example, Murad Ali Shah initially denied that new canals were being constructed, and only after Sindh’s protests was the matter brought to CCI. PPP gave NOCs and permission for islands’ takeover. The dual local-government system was imposed by PPP. Murad Ali Shah accepted the fake digital census in the CCI meeting. PPP also bargained away Sindh’s water. The decision to cut the Karoonjhar mountains was made by the PPP government.
On November 16, when thousands of workers of Sindhiyani Tehreek and Awami Tehreek marched in Hyderabad against the 26th, 27th and proposed 28th Amendments, corporate farming, canals, and feudalism — the PPP government filed cases against 500 workers. We want to tell PPP clearly: Sindhiyani Tehreek, Awami Tehreek, lawyers, journalists, writers, poets, and every conscious individual of Sindh will not be intimidated by your false cases. The conscious people of Sindh will continue the struggle against oppression and tyranny.
Honourable journalist brothers,
For more than one and a half centuries, Punjab’s rulers have been plundering the Indus River. New canals and dams have been constructed by force; now a Senate committee has announced the construction of a dam on the Chenab River. Chashma-Jhelum Link Canal, Taunsa-Panjnad, Bhasha Dam, Dasu Dam — all projects were built without Sindh’s consent and are entirely illegal.
Meanwhile, 1.3 million acres of Sindh’s land is being handed over to multinational companies for corporate farming. To irrigate the land for these companies, President Asif Zardari approved six new canals from the Indus River on July 8, 2024. PPP’s rulers raised hollow slogans of roti, kapra aur makaan, yet deprived people of every basic resource. Giving millions of acres of Sindh’s land to corporate entities is a conspiracy to make Sindhis strangers in their own homeland.
Honourable journalist brothers,
Education, health, irrigation, agriculture — all departments in Sindh are destroyed. Corruption is at its peak. Jobs are openly sold. 7 million children remain out of school. Farmers are denied fair prices for their crops. Seeds, fertilizers, pesticides and agricultural machinery are unaffordable. Tail-end farmers receive no water. Because water is not released below Kotri into the sea, millions of acres in Sajawal, Thatta and Badin districts have been swallowed by the sea. Due to the lack of water in the delta, mangrove forests are disappearing, causing environmental destruction.
Honourable journalist brothers,
Karachi is the capital of Sindh. Through a conspiracy, Karachi has been settled with foreigners—especially Afghans, Biharis, Bengalis, Indians, Burmese and others—by granting them facilities. Now a decision has been made to settle the Rohingya from Burma in Karachi. Karachi has been turned into an international orphanage. The Supreme Court, in the Karachi law-and-order case, ordered the expulsion of illegal immigrants, but neither the Sindh government nor the federal government implemented this decision.
We demand that all illegal foreigners be expelled from Karachi and the entire country. The Sindh government is not ready to regularise the ancient villages of indigenous Sindhis in Karachi. We demand that ownership rights be granted to the residents of Karachi’s ancient villages.
Honourable journalist brothers,
Awami Tehreek and Sindhiyani Tehreek will continue their struggle for the supremacy of the Constitution, rule of law, and ownership of resources. Against the 26th, 27th and proposed 28th Constitutional Amendments, corporate farming, canals, violence against women, bandit rule and feudalism — Awami Tehreek and Sindhiyani Tehreek will hold a protest rally in Larkana on December 21, We appeal to the people of Sindh and the entire country to join the peaceful struggle for constitutional supremacy, justice, judicial and media freedom, and to end the martial law imposed on the country in the name of democracy.
