SINDH: KARACHI, May 25: The Jeay Sindh Mahaz, alleging that resources of the province had been snatched from the Sindhis and outsiders were being brought in to turn the natives into a minority, demanded on Saturday that a referendum be held to determine if the Sindhis wanted to live in the present set-up or wished independence.
Speaking at a rally titled ‘Right of self-determination: our goal independence’ and organised by the JSM at the Karachi Press Club, JSM chief Abdul Khalique Junejo said that Pakistan came into being on the basis of the Lahore Resolution of 1940 under which sovereign and autonomous status of Sindh and other national units had been accepted, but after independence the country had been diverted in another direction.He alleged that first houses, properties and jobs of Sindhis were snatched, then their factories and lands were taken away and now they were being robbed of their natural resources, their water was being stolen, the Sindhi language was being deprived of its status and Sindhi culture was being humiliated. He said that outsiders were being brought in to turn the Sindhis into a minority on their own land and now some people were even demanding division of Sindh.
He said people were free to come, live and work here, but it should be understood that they would not be allowed to rule over Sindh — a right only the Sindhis had. He said Karachi is the capital and an integral part of Sindh and belonged to the Sindhis.
He said that keeping in view the situation it was high time that a sovereign status of Sindh be accepted and the right of self-determination — accepted by the United Nations as well as the Pakistan Resolution — of the Sindhis be given to them. He demanded that a referendum be held to know if the Sindhis wanted to live in the present set-up or wanted independence. Usman Baloch of the Awami Workers Party demanded that rights of the Sindhis be accepted.
UMERKOT: Strike was observed on Wednesday in different districts of Sindh, on the call of Sindh Bachayo Commitee, to protest against People’s Local Government Ordinance.
The Sindh Bachayo Committee (SBC) includes all the nationalist parties of Sindh; Sindh Taraqi Pasand Party, Awami Tehreek, Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz, Sindh United Party are part of it.
Public transport remained thin in Mirpurkhas, Umerkot, Sanghar , Hyderabad and Tharparkar districts. Rallies were taken out by nationalists in Mithi, Naukot, Sanghar, Khipro, Mirpurkhas and other districts and its cities.
In Mithi a rally was taken out from press club to Kashmir Chowk, Ghansham Malhi of Sindh Taraqi Pasand Party led the rally, protestors also observed sit-in at Gulan je mori Naukot, Wango mor on Badin- Mithi road and blocked vehicular traffic for three hours.
KARACHI / HYDERABAD: Supporters of the leftist coalition group, the Sindh Progressive Committee, had a run-in with the Barelvi religious-political party Sunni Tehreek at the Hyderabad Press Club on Tuesday, resulting in the police hauling in almost two dozen activists.
The Sunni Tehreek had been protesting the recent spate of violence in Karachi and had wrapped up the event. The Sindh Progressive Committee (SPC), which comprises the Workers Party, Labour Party, Communist Party, Jeay Sindh Mahaz, National Party, Awami Party and Watan Dost Inquilaabi Party, held a protest outside the press club against forced conversions and religious extremism.
The fight reportedly started as the Sunni Tehreek supporters alleged that attendees at the SPC’s event had beaten up a man who had stopped them from chanting slogans that they alleged were against religion.
Sunni Tehreek’s protestors went back to the press club and the fight forced SPC event attendees to hide inside the club as the Sunni Tehreek men threw stones and chanted slogans against them. While some female SPC leaders including Professor Arfana Mallah and Sindh University lecturer and activist Amar Sindhu managed to escape, the police cordoned off the area around the press club and rescued the rest. While they had assumed the police would release them, they were sent to the Cantonment Police Station.
The Sunni Tehreek’s Abid Qadri alleged that the SPC had “attacked our man first” and “used abusive language”. Arfana Mallah said their protest was peaceful but they had been attacked by the Sunni Tehreek, who brought “weapons, stones and sticks” and “forced us not to chant slogans”.
According to the police, 23 men from the Sindh Progressive Committee were arrested. The Sunni Tehreek’s Hyderabad General Secretary Muhammad Yaseen Qadri registered a First Information Report (FIR) under sections 148, 147 and 149. Even though the FIR mentions 60 people, only three are mentioned by name – Comrade Iqbal, Allah Bux and Bakhshal Thallo. The Sunni Tehreek and SPC have both claimed their supporters were injured.
At the SPC’s protest in Karachi, activists demanded that Rinkle Kumari and Asha Kumari, the two women who have drawn attention to the rise of Hindu conversions in Sindh, be handed over to their parents. They chanted slogans against landlords, clerics, army generals and extremists and asked that the government separate religion from matters of the state.
Speakers included Yousuf Masti Khan, Nasir Mansoor, Jan Muhammad Buledi, Usman Baloch, Mehnaz Rehman, Comrade Iqbal and Abdul Khaliq Junejo. “We don’t support a state that promotes religious extremism and stifles the environment for other religions. Every man is free in this country and has the right to move freely and perform his religious rituals,” said Usman Baloch.
Bashir Khan Qureshi, former chief of the Sindhi Nationalist group Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM) died suddenly and mysteriously on April 7, 2012 .
It is being claimed that he died of cardiac arrest, although he did not have any previous such history, and was otherwise in excellent health. As a result, many suspect that foul play was involved in his death.
News of his mysterious death follows a recent rush of killings of Sindhi nationalist leaders in Pakistan. Mr. Qureshi was imprisoned several times during his lifetime for his work as a Sindhi nationalist.
No Pakistani investigation is likely to have credibility with the people of Pakistan, in particular with the Sindhis who were strong supporters of Mr. Qureshi. Therefore, it will be necessary that an independent UN prosecutor be appointed to carry out an investigation of the death of Bashir Khan Qureshi.
SINDH – KARACHI, (SANA): A complete shutter-down strike has been observed in Sindh following the call by Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM) on Wednesday. The strike, which was supported by other nationalist parties, was called against the government delay in the chemical examination of viscera taken from the body of JSQM leader Bashir Qureshi. ….
…. The Jeay Sindh workers staged protest in Daharki where all the business centers remain closed while complete shutter down strike is being observed in all parts of the city including Bhutta Market, Railway Road. Several JSQM activists staged a sit-in protest at National Highway while police arrested 8 people. Situation has turned tense in the city while a heavy number of police force has been deployed in the city.
Meanwhile, shutter down strike is being observed in several cities and towns of the province including Jacobabad, Sukkur, Kashmore, Kandhkot and other cities. Incidents of firing and rumpus by the protesters were also reported in some areas of the province.
The JSQM leadership suspects that Bashir Qureshi was allegedly poisoned to death and doubts that the chemical examination reports at any government could be changed. They demanded that the post mortem (autopsy) reports should be got tested from Agha Khan Hospital or any other reputed facility.
Party leaders had demanded the government that the autopsy examination be obtained from a private hospital in order to determine the actual cause of death of Bashir Qureshi but the officials have failed to meet the demand as yet.
…. in Safora Goath in Karachi, leading to forced closure of business in the area. Also, some unidentified outlaws pelted traffic with stones on Maripur Road and blocked the same for traffic. …
Arsonists burnt tires on Minarah Road to block the flow of traffic in Sukkur and also resorted to aerial firing in many areas of the city to alarm people.
…. strike by JSQM, and the provincial government has put police force on high alert all over Sindh. …..
The premature death of Mr Bashir Khan Qureshi, Chairman Jeay Sindh Qomi Mahaz (JSQM) just a couple of weeks after he arranged a huge rally ‘Freedom March’ in Karachi on March 23 has shocked every person irrespective of his/her socio-political orientation. On March 23, Mr Quershi reiterated the demand for the independence of Sindh, which was initially raised by his predecessor leader Saaiin G.M Sayed in the aftermath of the independence of Bangladesh. Like Saaiin G.M Syed, Mr Bashir Khan Quershi also based his struggle on the principle of non-violence and he was vehement supporter of de-weaponization at the University Campuses. Mr Quershi used to extend unconditional support to every movement which asked for the rights of the people. Therefore he became a real beloved leader of the people of Sindh.
Media in Pakistan including Sindhi TV Channels have remained biased to Sindhi nationalists. They don’t show full details of the events related to nationalist politics as per State policy and hence majority of people at home and abroad remain aloof of such developments. The advent of social media like Facebook, Youtube etc have provided alternative for people to communicate. I take this opportunity to share a few comments of some persons as tribute to Saaiin Bashir Khan Quershi.
Rabail Aziz: Brave son of Sindh Bashir Khan Qureshi passes away, he died through heart attack (Sources). but during his life he has no any problem of heart, it is political murder by anti sindhi forces.
Irfan Raza: Dear Hameer. You may disagree with philosophy of JSQM. But I think you should not take a hard-line. I worked with JSQM Workers (Back in 2005: I was in Ghotki, when Pakistan’s bad-ever Train Accident happened @ Ghotki Railway Station – 3 Trains crashed and around 230 people died in accident) Then it was only JSQM workers who saved lives of 100 people [most of them were Punjabi, Pashtun and urdu Speaking] who might be confirmed deaths. I am not Sindhi, never been JSQM Worker. But Bashir Qureshi was a voice – who always raised on/for the rights of those who never been heard. RIP Bashir Qureshi.
Han Dil Udas Raha Aaj Thora Sa. Insano Ko Un K haqooq Milnay Chaheyen. Ye Baat Kahnay wali aik aur awaz Rizk-e-Khaak ho gae.
Amar Sindhu: All other nationalists are the leaders of their parties but BKQ was the leader of sindh.
Tody Sindh proved the she can weep and cry for every being who loves her pplz. the myth of bhuttos also has been proved wrong that Sindhi pplz only can cry for bhuttoz, Sindhi pplz can cry for every leader who offered them unconditional love and this time they cried for Bashir Khan Quraishi as they cried for bhuttoz.
Arfana Mallah: Millions of people are gathered at Rato Dero, all TV channels blocked this view, I am requesting all those who are there please record this view on mobile and upload on your facebook, to show the world that how sindhies love their leaders.
Courtesy: Sindhi e-lists/ e-groups, April 8, 2012.
LARKANO: Many cities across Sindh are observing complete shutter down and wheel-jam after Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM ) chairman Bashir Qureshi passed away late Friday night, Geo News reported. ….
(Desk News/ Analysis) Our dear friend, our guide, and great leader Chairman Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM), Bashir Qureshi passed away and left the Sindhi nation crying behind. The people of Sindh wish he could have lived many more years to lead the nation towards a prosperous and developed Sindh.
The flooding of tweets and comments at social media and e-mails at Sindhi e-lists suspect that he has been poisoned because only a few days ago on the 23rd of March 2012 through the successful Freedom March/ rally in Karachi, he caused the deep security establishment of the country to lose its sleep forever. Many suspect he was martyred as Shah Nawaz Bhutto was martyred and his death was not his natural death. According to the statement of JSQM General Secretary Asif Baladi, “Bashir Qureshi didn’t have any heart-related disease. We see a conspiracy behind his sudden death.” But as the regime being involved, chances of a fair investigation are less than slim.
Bashir Qureshi was a great human being and a leader. He was a true disciple of Saeen GM Syed. He was a down to earth and a very caring and humble person. He was actually the continuation of the struggle of G.M. Syed for the independence of Sindh. Therefore, the deep security establishment could not digest his party’s successful freedom march in the capital of Sindh, Karachi; thus the establishment played its dirty role to remove him from the scene and as a result Sindh had lost her valuable son. On Facebook his party workers express that they will continue resistance against the slavery of the deep state and they will continue to go forward with his path of freedom of Sindh.
Napoleon had said, “It is the cause, and not the death, that makes the martyr.” Basheer Khan Qureshi fought for a noble cause. He is a martyr. And, martyrs never die.
Courtesy: Sindhi e-lists/ e-groups, twitter, social media, April 6, 2012.
Karachi – As the nation celebrated the 72nd Pakistan Day with much enthusiasm across the country, Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz chairman Bashir Qureshi bade “farewell” to the 1940’s Pakistan Resolution and demanded independence for Sindh.
Speaking at a rally, which was, ironically, organised on M A Jinnah Road close to the mausoleum of the founder of Pakistan, Qureshi said that Sindh contributed 80 percent of revenue to the federal budget and the Sindhis had therefore the right to make their own decisions.
He said that “Punjab has usurped the resources of Sindh in the name of Pakistan [and Islam]” and that there was no country named Pakistan in history. “Pakistan is not a country and Pakistanis are not a nation.” The JSQM leader said that for the past 65 years “the Punjabis have usurped the resources of Sindh.”
The party had announced an “Azadi March” on the 8th of this month and since Friday morning activists of the party, carrying their red party flags on motorbikes, private cars and trucks, had been reaching the rally site from various part of the city.
The activists were shouting the party slogan: “Tunjho Desh, Munjho Desh, Sindhu Desh Sindhu Desh” on their way to the rally. The rally caused a major traffic jam on Sharea Faisal bringing vehicles to a standstill.
Addressing a crowd holding the party flags, the JSQM chief said that the he believed that the Urdu-speaking people were part of the Sindh nation and that “their future lies in Sindhu Desh”.
On the issue of Balochistan, he said that the largest province of the country deserved freedom from Punjab’s hegemony as did the province of Sindh. He said his party did not believe in violence.
Delving into history, he said that the British merged Sindh with Bombay. Warning the people of Sindh, he said that the “enemies always have had an eye on Sindh’s quota”. Qureshi also warned that projects like Zulfikarabad City were a conspiracy hatched against the people of Sindh to turn them into a minority in their own province.
KARACHI: As the people across the country celebrated Pakistan Day, hundreds of thousand people from Sindh gathered in Karachi on Friday and demanded freedom for Sindh and an independent status for Balochistan. This demand came in a ‘Freedom March’ rally organised by the Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM), a Sindhi nationalist party, led by Bashir Qureshi. ….
* Demonstrators denounce Pakistan Resolution of 1940 and chant slogans in favour of ‘Sindhu Desh’
By Asghar Azad
Excerpts;
…. JSQM Calls For Independent Sindh: “We Sindhis now disown the Pakistan Resolution, say it good bye and demand independence of Sindh according to historical status”.
Hundreds of thousands attend JSQM ‘Freedom March’ in Karachi, Sindh.
Demonstrators denounce Pakistan Resolution of 1940 and chant slogans in favour of ‘Sindhu Desh’
Addressing the participants, Jeay Sindh Qaumi Muhaz Chairman, Bashir Qureshi said that Sindh had voluntarily merged itself into the country under 1940’s Pakistan Resolution but now its people were disowning it as the resolution had failed to protect rights and autonomy of the province during last 65 years.
The Sindhi nationalist leader announced that his party accepted Urdu speaking population in Sindh during the partition and considered them part of Sindh, adding, the Urdu speaking population would have to take steps for Sindh and its people sincerely and would prove their attachment with Sindh. …..
Jeay Sindh Quomi Mahaz (Jeay Sindh National Front) along with many organizations like Progressive Hindu Alliance, Youth Council of Sindh Minorities, Bheel Intellectual Forum, Sindh Kolhi Alliance, Scheduled Caste Social Organization and many Sindhi organizations are doing LONG MARCH from Mirpur Khas to Hyderabad (100 km).
URGENT APPEAL HRCP – Abduction of Two Sindhi Nationalist Leaders
Human Rights Commission of Pakistan requests your urgent intervention in the following situation
Description of the situation: On Monday night March 5, 2012 Dr. Mir Alam Marree, Senior Vice-Chairman Jeay Sindh Qomi Mahaz (JSQM) and Mr. Umer Teewano alias Raja Dahar were sitting at a restaurant opposite Rajputana Hospital,Gulshan-e-Sajad, in the jurisdiction Bhittai Nagar, Police Station, Hyderabad, Sindh Pakistan.
According to the eye witnesses they were picked up by plain cloth men belonging to law enforcing agencies who came in four vehicles including a police mobile. Before taking them away they were hit by the rifles butts.
Ms. Ghazal Maree D/O Mir Alam Maree told HRCP that on Monday at 7.30 pm her father talked with her but after twenty minutes when she called back her fathers’ cell phone was switched off. There was no FIR against her father.
Action requested – Please write to the authorities in Pakistan urging them:
1. To disclose the whereabouts of two Sindhi nationalist leaders and reason for their arrest.
2. To release the detainees immediately if they are not to be charged with a cognizable criminal offense.
3. To allow the families of the detainee to meet them.
4. They should be provided lawyers access.
5. To protect them from torture and other ill-treatment while they are in detention.
We express our deep concern on the abduction of Dr. Mir Alam Muree, Senior Vice-Chairman Jeay Sindh Qomi Mahaz(JSQM) and Mr. Umer Teewano alias Raja Dahar by law enforcement agencies.
We demand that they must not be tortured.
We urge that they are dealt with according to law.
We urge that if there was no case against them they should be immediately released.
We urge to provide them all kind of medical facilities.
We demand that their families should be allowed to meet them
We demand that they should be allowed to meet lawyers of their choice.
Hindu protesters demand justice for 17-year-old girl, who they believe was forcefully converted to Islam, Blame PPP MNA Mian Abdul Haq alias Mian Mitho for her ‘abduction’
KARACHI – A sizable crowd of Hindu protesters gathered outside the Karachi Press Club on Sunday, demanding justice for a 17-year-old Hindu girl from Mirpur Mathelo in Ghotki district, Rinkle Kumari, who was allegedly abducted forcefully converted to Islam and renamed Faryal.
The relatives of the girl, who were among the protesters, blame one man for her alleged predicament – Pakistan People’s Party MNA Mian Abdul Haq alias Mian Mitho, who is also the spiritual leader of Bharchundi Sharif in Daharki.
The girl’s relatives claimed that the girl fell in love with her neighbour Naveed Shah, whose friend Hussam Kalwar is a supporter of the MNA.
Kalwar, a criminal, has been arrested several times but always manages to get released due to his ties to the influential MNA.
Giving details about the night when Kumari was “abducted”, her uncle, Daya Ram, said in the early hours of February 24 this year, Kumari was supposed to meet Naveed Shah, believing that he would be alone. But Shah was not alone and accompanied by armed men, who abducted her and took her to Bharchundi Sharif, where she was forcefully converted to Islam.
“She did not leave home out of free will. If she had, why was one of her shoes at the home’s entrance and her dupatta outside? She was kidnapped by armed men, who barged into the home,” Ram told Pakistan Today.
He further said on the morning of February 24, he reached the Mirpur Mathelo police station and had an FIR registered against Naveed Shah.
On the same day at 1 pm, Kumari’s family received a phone call from MNA Haq’s son Mian Aslam Shah, who told them that if they wish to meet the girl, they should come to his residence.
However, Ram claimed, the family told him that they do not wish to meet her at his residence and would instead want her brought to the DSP’s office or the Hindu Panchayat Hall, where she can talk with them freely. However, both these options were rejected.
Ram said the next day, Kumari’s family was told that they can meet the girl at the Ghotki DSP’s office, but they would have to come along with Jeay Sindh Mahaz Chairman Riaz Chandio.
When Chandio and the girl’s family entered the office of the DSP, they saw that Mian Shaman, the brother of the PPP MNA, was seated on the chair of the DSP. The family again refused to talk with the girl in Shaman’s presence and was again given an option that they can meet her in the presence of Naveed Shah. The family did not accept the offer and went to the Ghotki civil judge.
The first time Kumari met her family after the “abduction” was in the court. She told her family in the presence of counsels from both sides that she was kidnapped. “Some people entered our home and kidnapped me. I did not want to leave with Naveed Shah,” Kumari’s uncle quoted her as saying.
At that moment, Ram said, Naveed Shah fainted and the judge, instead of letting the recording of her statement complete, remanded Kumari to police custody for two days.
“At the Sukkur police station, a policewoman handed her a cell phone on which she was threatened that if she did not change her statement, she and her relatives will be killed and the property of all Hindus in the area will be demolished,” Ram claimed.
“When Rinkle was brought to the court again, she was confused and upset and asked us to forgive her and allow her to sacrifice herself for our sake,” he added.
He said on February 26, President Asif Ali Zardari took notice of the incident and police again “kidnapped” Kumari and at 2 pm, she was shifted to Mirpur Mathelo from Sukkur.
On February 27, the day when Kumari had to appear in the court again, all routes to the court were blocked, but not for the “fanatic” followers of the MNA.
“If Rinkle was acting out of her own will, then why was she surrounded by armed men at the court?” Daya Rama questioned.
During the second hearing, Kumari gave a statement in favour of Naveed Shah and the court ordered her to be given into his custody.
In response to the family’s allegations, MNA Haq’s son Mian Aslam Shah has claimed that the couple had come to him seeking help and the girl wanted to convert to Islam so she could marry Shah.
MPA Petamber Sehwani, during the Sindh Assembly session on February 29, said Hindus’ daughters are being kidnapped and boys killed. “They are being forced to leave Sindh. But I want to make it clear that the Hindus of Sindh will not leave their motherland. Do not push us to the wall,” he said.
The pirs or spiritual leaders of Bharchundi Sharif have a history of religious extremism. On November 2, 1939, a famous Hindu Sufi singer Bhagat Kanwar Ram was killed in a train while travelling to Sukkur. The FIR of the murder was registered against MNA Haq’s father, Mian Abdul Rahim and his two followers.
KARACHI, March 4: An alliance of minority parties on Sunday appealed to Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry to take a suo motu notice of the kidnapping of a Hindu girl and order her immediate return to her parents to restore the waning sense of security in the minorities.
Speaking at a protest demonstration staged outside the Karachi Press Club, Pakistan Minority Leaders Alliance representatives said they would launch a protest movement and stage a sit-in on March 10 if the authorities failed to recover the girl, Rinkle Kumari.
According to an uncle of the girl, Raj Kumar, she was kidnapped from her house in Mirpur Mathelo over a week ago and forced to marry Naveed Shah and change her religion. He alleged that the case was heard by a civil judge in Ghotki, but he did not allow her relatives to enter the courtroom while giving a verdict in favour of the ‘kidnapper’, Mr Shah.
Speaking on the occasion, Jeay Sindh Mahaz chief Riaz Chandio expressed solidarity with the minority community members and demanded arrest of and punishment to culprits involved in her kidnapping.
He said those belonging to religious minority groups, including Hindus, Christians and Sikhs, were sons of the soil. They should not feel threatened by such acts, as all Sindhis were one and that they were equal citizens and had equal rights, he said.
He said it was unfortunate that the girl was given in police custody instead of being sent to Darul Aman.
Mr Chandio announced that if “the daughter of Sindh” was not rescued and returned and culprits were not arrested soon and punished according to law, a province-wide sit-it would be staged on Saturday.
Manohar Lal, Muttahida Qaumi Movement lawmaker in the national assembly, condemned the kidnapping and forced conversion of a young girl. He urged the president to take notice of the incident.
He said Islam guaranteed protection to minorities, but such people were giving a bad name to the religion. With such incidents, a sense of insecurity was growing in the community, he said. Earlier their sons were kidnapped for ransom, but now their daughters were being kidnapped and forcibly converted, he remarked.
Jeay Sindh Taraqi Pasand Party leader Gulzar Soomro said that forced conversions were a conspiracy against Islam, which preaches love and peace and opposes use of force. He said the culprits were agents of the establishment that wanted to divide the Sindhis.
“Our patience should not be mistaken as our weakness,” he warned, seeking her immediate recovery.
A Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leader and former lawmaker, Michael Javed, said the Quaid-i-Azam had said that the minorities would be equal citizens in Pakistan, but over the years the Quaid’s message was being forgotten.
Amar Lal, a community leader, said he and the girl’s uncle had met US consulate general staff a few days back and political counsellor Junaid J. Muneer had assured him that the issue would be taken up with the authorities concerned. He said he had also received a call from a former political counsellor of the US embassy in Islamabad, L.K. Robinson, who was currently in Washington. He told him that he would take up the issue with human rights organisations there.
Mahesh Singh, Mangla Sharma, Ramesh Kumar, Vijay Kumar and others also spoke.
Raj Kumar, the girl’s uncle, earlier informed the gathering that on Feb 24, a few armed men barged into her home in Mirpur Mathelo and kidnapped her at gunpoint.
He said a case was filed in a Ghotki court where he said she gave a statement about the threats she had received to convert and marry Naveed Shah or she and her entire family would be killed. He quoted her as saying in the court that she wanted to return and live with her parents.
He also alleged that the judge, in the presence of gunmen in the court, sent her to police custody rather than to her parents’ home or to a shelter home. The next hearing was scheduled to be held at 11am on Feb 27, but the case was heard at 8.15am and the girl’s family was not allowed to enter the courtroom, he said, adding that the judge then gave a verdict in favour of Mr Shah.
Mr Kumar urged the chief justice to take a suo motu notice of the issue and order her safe return to her parents.
Earlier, the participants in the demonstration chanted slogans such as ‘we want justice’ and ‘Rinkle be rescued’.
SINDH – KARACHI: Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM) Chairman Bashir Khan Qureshi along with his four accomplices has been arrested from Gulshan-e-Hadeed area by the Rangers and shifted to some unknown place, correspondent Khurshid Abbasi reported.
…. In Pakistan the national question exists in its worst form because Pakistan itself is an example of a failed nation state. Pakistan was created as a result of the partition of the Indian subcontinent as the British imperialists and the local/national bourgeois leaders feared that a united national liberation would not stop there but would move towards a social transformation that would overthrow landlordism, capitalism and the imperialist strangle hold. To avoid a socialist revolution they conspired and split the movement along religious lines that led to the reactionary and traumatic partition of a land that had more than five thousand years of common history, cultural and socio economic existence.
Pakistan was founded not as a nation state, but as a state made up of nationalities. Even the abbreviations which form the word Pakistan are a testimony to this fact. This corresponds to its belated character. … National oppression has been brutal and rough ever since the country came into being. ….
….the separation of Bangladesh, the inability to resolve regional and sectarian disputes, the inability to sustain a clear concept and direction to Pakistan’s Nationalism and finally failure to create a modern cohesive nation state.
Pakistan’s political system is dominated by elite groups. In addition it faces the dilemma of chronic military rule. ….
….Sindh, the southern most province of the state possesses one of the most varied demographical set-ups in Pakistan. There is a very fragile ethnic balance between Sindhis and non-Sindhis. After partition many of the immigrants from Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh in India moved mainly to Karachi, but also to Hyderabad, Sukkur and other cities of Sindh.
This massive influx of Mohajirs from India and other nationalities resulted in a greater control of people from this transmigration over the economy, jobs and posts in the state apparatus. Although this phenomenon had a greater impact on urban Sindh, the deprivation was felt also in rural Sindh especially amongst the Sindhi middle classes. The acquisition of State and other lands by Punjab Generals and other settlers further aggravated this feeling of national deprivation amongst the Sindhi populace. There are several other factors which fuelled these sentiments. ….
….At the heart of nationalist sentiments in Pakistan is the perception by non-Punjabis that the Punjabi nationality dominates the economy, politics, society and the state. There is considerable evidence to support this perception. First, Punjabis constitute a majority of the population, approximately 60%; second, they dominate the civilian bureaucracy and the military; third, the Punjab is by far the wealthiest and most developed province in the state. And this perception is ironically fuelled by governmental policies designed to assuage such perceptions. ….
…. G. M. Syed can rightly be considered as the founder of Sindhi nationalism. He formed the Sindh Progressive Party in 1947 and demanded provincial autonomy within a socialist framework. In 1953 he formed the SindhAwami Mahaz. G. M. Syed himself a middle sized landlord represented the grievances of that class as well. …
… There have been several movements in Sindh over the last 60 years but there are three very significant mass upsurges that shook the echelons of power in Islamabad. These are the movements of 1968-69, 1983 and to some extent that of 1986. All these movements had different intensities, character, orientation and motivations. …
… Zia was the son of a Mullah who had migrated from Eastern (Indian) Punjab and was American-trained at Fort Bragg. His atrocities, his make up and his background were enough to provoke massive hatred from the masses in Sindh. Zia’s repression of the Sindh was no less than the brutalities of British colonialists inflicted upon the mass of the subcontinent and other colonies. All this unleashed a glorious movement of the Sindhi masses against the military dictatorship. Although this movement had significant nationalist overtones, fundamentally it was linked to the general class resentment against this regime.
The movement failed because the regime was able to foster ethnic and nationalist discord especially in urban Sindh and in other main cities and provinces of Pakistan. In Karachi the Pakistani state devised the instrument of the MQM, the Punjabi Pushtoon Ittehad, Islamic fundamentalists and other reactionary outfits to break the momentum of struggle that was developing along class lines.
Still the movement raged on. In such circumstances whenever national antagonisms coincided with class contradictions they became especially hot. According to the official figures 1263 innocent people were slaughtered by the army in rural Sindh while thousands more were injured. There are heroic episodes of resistance that have now become legends in Sindhi folklore. …
… In 1986 the movement in Sindh was actually the last nail in Zia’s coffin. …
… If we in Sindh should achieve “freedom” through the same phenomenon as in Bangladesh we may well get freedom from non-Sindhi capitalists, but we will be all the more cruelly exploited by Sindhi capitalists and landlords. These nationalists do not want freedom from poverty, misery, unemployment; they just want freedom to establish control over their own market where they could extract a huge surplus by squeezing the last drop of the workers’ blood.
The feudal landlords want freedom to exploit the peasants and working class …
… We will take revenge for the crime of partition of India through the formation of a Red Revolutionary Subcontinent. As Comrade Lal khan says, “The unification of the Indian subcontinent will be on a much higher plane than the 1947 Partition.” …
Muzaffar Bhutto, a senior member of a Sindhi nationalist political party in Pakistan, has been abducted for a second time allegedly by plain-clothed intelligence agents and police on 25 February. His wife is concerned for his life, as he is suffering from serious health problems. Amnesty International fears he might be tortured or ill-treated whilst in detention. …
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