Sindh nationalists observe shutdown
Activists stage rallies in different cities to protest against proposed plan to divide province
Karachi: Ethnic Sindhi nationalists yesterday observed a shutdown of markets and traffic in many cities and towns of the Sindh province in protest against what they called a move to divide the province into two.
Activists of Awami Tehreek, Jiye Sindh Qaumi Mahaz and Sindh United Parties staged rallies in different cities of the province including Hyderabad, Thatta, Badin, Dadu, Mirpur Khas, Jamshoro, Umer Kot, and Nawabshah.
The strike was observed to condemn a proposed moved by Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), the party that holds the sway over the province's urban areas, suggesting the creation of more provinces by dividing Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces.
Although the MQM has not proposed any administrative change in Sindh, the nationalists apprehended the move would lead to fragmentation of Sindh.
Telephonic address
"MQM has attacked the sovereignty and integrity of Sindh by laying the bill in the parliament for its approval," Ayaz Paleejo, a leading nationalist leader, told a rally in Hyderabad.
He said that although no change has been proposed in Sindh, MQM could misuse the amended law.
Altaf Hussain, the MQM leader who lives outside Pakistan, in a telephonic address to his followers in a rally in Sukkur city said his party would support all ethnic or nationalist units whoever aspired for a separate province.
Addressing the nationalists, he said, "Your politics of divide and rule has come to an end. The Urdu-speaking Sindhis and the Sindhi-speaking Sindhis have united like an iron wall," Hussain said.
"Today's public meeting has driven the last nail in the coffin of the so-called nationalists, and it has rejected hatred," he said.
Gun shots were heard in some towns and some activists got markets closed forcibly. Two buses were set on fire in Sukkur. In Nawabshah, the hometown of President Asif Ali Zardari, the police and the nationalists scuffled with each other while a police van was hit with stones and clubs.
There are strong movements going on in the provinces of the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. In the Punjab province, Sariaki speaking people aspire for a separate province comprising the cities and towns of southern Punjab. In Khyber Pakhtuankhwa province, Hazara-speaking population was striving to get their separate province too.
