Sindh Consultative Forum condemns the role of Urdu, English & World Media.

[scf <psrc@HYD.PAKNET.COM.PK>]

Statement on unfair and partial attitude of Urdu, English & World Media
towards Long March of Awami Tahreek, Provincial Autonomy, Kalabagh Dam,
PONM's struggle and on Sindhi, Baloch, Pashtoon & Seraiki Issues.

   Sindh and Pakistan are suffering from all kinds of oppressions and
terrorisms including that of one-sided propaganda by Urdu and English Press
of Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad and a lobby of anti-Sindhi Pressmen
associated with international media against peaceable and democracy loving
Sindhi people, the heirs of Indus Civilization. Sindhis cannot remain silent
when their water is being stopped and five thousand years old homeland is
subjected to threats of dismemberment, and hateful attempts are kept on at
converting them into a minority within their home-land. Assessing the
current political situation and in face of arrogant disinformation launched
by the Lahore and Pindi based Press, Sindh Consultative Forum condemns the
on going fascistic politics challenging the future and integrity of their
land and their very survival as a people. On the one hand the thousands of
Sindhi men, women and children are marching from Sukkur to Karachi under the
banner of Awami Tahreek and Baloch women are staging sit-ins in Queta and
Karachi, but on the other hand unscrupulous politics and yellow journalism
use the euphemism of "Qomi Mafad", "Abee Zakhair" and "Amn-o-Amaan" as code
words for their demand that homelands of the people of Sindh, Balochistan,
Seraiki, Pakhtoonkhuah and their resources, the rights and liberties of its
inhabitants, which they have refused to surrender without a fight to finish
to the mighty Greeks, the Huns, the Arabs, Afghans, Mughals, Tarkhans and
the British, be surrendered to the terrorists of establishment.
  The establishment, Punjabi ruling classes and UP-Punjab clique want a
beautiful desert on the Seacoast, on the southern side of Pakistan, in
Sindh. In this Sindh desert, they want the people to return to the idyllic
pastoral life of their distant fore fathers, rear cattle and other livestock
and produce healthy milk, butter and meat for cities. In Punjab with the
help of Kalabagh Dam and in the Thal desert with Thal Canal they want to
build a dream-land of an oasis for the generals, who, they hope will soon
become billionaire land lords of the famous Prussian junker type and will
rule Pakistan for ever and ever and make it a World Power.
They have no concern that Sindhi people played a prominent role in the
formation of  Pakistan. Had Sindhi people not consented to join the proposed
state of Pakistan, there would have been no Pakistan. They forget that it
was a Sindhi Quiad-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who founded Pakistan, and it
was the province of Sindh which first passed the Pakistan Resolution in its
Provincial Assembly. We Sindhi people struggled for and helped achieve
Pakistan, because, we were promised a better, more prosperous, more humane
quality of lie, political sovereignty, demographic stability and
inviolability of boundaries. What has happened, however, is that from the
first day of Pakistan, has begun the stage-by-stage implementation of a long
term plan to dispossess and disinherit us of our land, and villages, towns
and cities, our sources of livelihood, our water, our civil liberties, our
democratic, political, national and human rights, the sanctity of our homes,
our lives, our honour, our right internally to rule our own homeland and our
very national existence.  In pursuance of this sinister conspiracy, Sindh
has been treated from the very first day of Pakistan as an owner-less
abandoned piece of waste-land open to anyone who may like to come and grab
it. As if there were no existing historical property rights over the
territory of Sindh. As if countless generations of ours bad not laid down
their lives to protect their right over each and every inch of this
territory. As if our forefathers had not fought against the Greeks, the
Arghuns, The Tarkhans, the Mughals, the Brithish. As if we the people of
Sindh were merely sojourners on this territory of ours having permanent and
exclusive rights over this territory. And as if any body who might like to
do so, could have the right to grab this land, its rivers, water,
agricultural lands, villages, towns, cities, jobs and businesses at his
pleasure.
Goebbelean propaganda masters of of the establishment, of so called
"National Press" and of Terrorists Commando Mafia have not only been
ignoring the long marchs, sit-ins and protest rallies of Sindhis and of
other oppressed nations but have been arguing that the Sindhis are being
treated equally in resources, jobs and opportunities and they have been
wasting the water, but in fact the increasing number of suicides in Sindh,
the worsening situation of unemployment and terminations, in matters of
availability of health and educational facilities, clean drinking water, per
capita income, availability of roads, electricity, telephone, drainage and
other civic amenities and above all in matters of political will and
democratic rule, Sindhis have virtually been treated like slaves. They are
not only being ignored in federal jobs but even in provincial services,
secretariat, judiciary, private industries, business organizations and
multinational corporations hardly five to ten percent indigenous Sindhis are
employed. Sindhis from time to time have been trying to present their
deprivations and victimizations but the Lahore and Karachi based Urdu and
English press and pro-establishment and pro-immigrant journalists associated
with Nawai Waqt, Nation, The News, Jang, Dawn, Geo, ARV, Indus, HUM and the
rest of the Press throughout Pakistan and also working with BBC, CNN, Fox,
Zee, VOA, Radio Germany, Akashwani, Door Darshan, Radio Australia, Agency
France Press etc constantly presenting a totally false picture of the
situation of Water Theft and Dam and Canal opposition and of awami movements
of oppressed nations.
  We, the Sindhi intellectuals, writers, teachers, poets and thinkers invite
UNO, SAARC, representatives of the western democracies particularly USA, UK,
France and Germany, Islamic countries, Amnesty International, Asia Watch,
International media including BBC, CNN, Al Jazeera, VOA, and Germany, French
and Australian Radio and TV, and impartial Pakistan journalists to visit
Hyderabad, Larkana, Sukkur, Shikarpur, Thatta, Badin, Karachi, Sanghar,
Mithi, Dadu and other areas of Sindhi and find facts on the ground. We also
invite independent and fair-minded leaders of political parties, MNAs, MPAs,
Senator, to visit Sindh and talk to the people of all walks of life
regarding the current situation.
Sindh Consultative Forum (SCF) strongly believes in political justice, rule
of law, democracy, human rights and in peaceful political process of
resolving political problems. But at the same time SCF and Sindhi People
oppose vehemently any suggestion, compromise or surrender by any political
party, group or individual or any solution which may promote construction of
Kalabagh or any other Dam or canal on Indus, further water theft and the
attempts to deprive Sindhis of their rightful political, economic, cultural
and human rights. We make it very clear that peace loving Sindhis will fight
to a finish if any attempt is made to block their water, dismember Sindh or
convert Sindhis into minority on their own homeland.
Man can some how survive for some time without peace but never without
water. Judging by the past history, the locking up of Indus at Kalabagh will
turn Sindh into a desert and destroy the lives of crores of people in Sindh
and many more in NWFP. Sindhis, Balochs and Pashtoons will have no where to
go, except to fight for their existence. This is going to have consequences
for the whole of Pakistan, which could go far beyond the longest possible
rule of the present rulers and may prove to be worse than those of the East
Pakistan debacle. We request to the entire local and international print
media, satellite TV and radio channels and columnists to stand up and
present a true and factual picture of Sindh, Balochistan and Seraiki. We
appeal to the entire people of Sindh to stand up and unite to root out
oppression, lawlessness, unemployment, water theft, violence and terrorism
and foil the nefarious designs of establishment and rulers of Punjab. We
felt that conscious and responsible democratic opinion be personally
informed of the situation and misconceptions on Sindh be somewhat diffused.
For more information about the problems of Sindhis and hostile actions and
policies for long aimed at depriving them of their political, economic,
cultural and human rights, we would welcome your kind and fraternal
response.

Ayaz Latif Palijo Coordinator
Sindh Consultative Forum (SCF)
Hyderabad Sindh