Daily Times

No sooner than the demise of the founder of the country, the senior leadership of Pakistan began committing monumental mistakes in the nation building disregarding the democratic aspirations of the Eastern wing and the small federating units. The power tussle in the centre distracted the leadership from constitution making, elections and establishment of a genuine democratic dispensation. The political instability that ensued gave rise to palace intrigues and autocratic decisions emboldening power wielders and fortune seekers to play havoc with the destiny of the nation in flagrant violation of all democratic and constitutional practices.

During this political trial and tribulation from September 1948 to March 1969, Sindh and Balochistan endured the worst coercive power of the state. Balochistan remained chaotic after the forcible annexation of its independent Khanate in Pakistan. The insurgency that ensued was overcome after an arduous military operation, bloodshed, arrests and executions of Baloch stalwarts. Balochistan has not so far come out of this blood drench. The problems that Sindh confronted were of administrative, political, constitutional and legal nature solely created by the arrogant federal governments with the connivance of the scheming establishment. The merger of this land into One-Unit; the federalization of Karachi; the massive settlement of the immigrants causing a population imbalance; the relegation of Sindhi language and the cancerous ethnic division all have had the footprints of the establishment.

The apparent purpose of all this was to subdue the spirit of freedom of the Sindhi people, capture their rich resources and deny to them their due right in federal jobs, postings and promotions in senior administrative ranks. The feudal class was ever willing to become pawn in the power politics of the colonial authorities as well as the loyal successors of the British India establishment. The partition and the violence that followed in Karachi at the instigation of certain unscrupulous leaders deprived Sindh of its substantial non Muslim urban population consisting mostly of philanthropists, community leaders, advocates, teachers, traders. The immigrants did not fill the vacuum indulging in grabbing evacuee properties. Their elite had come with a triumphal complex looking down upon Sindh as a conquered land.

Like time, the evolutionary wheel of history waits for none. This wheel will keep on spinning favoring the majority community and relegating the obstinate minorities into obscurity

Their substantial partnership with the senior ranks from the majority province in West Pakistan prolonged and strengthened their delusional superiority complex hampering their assimilation in the majority population of their chosen province, though it was clear that they are being used as Trojan horse in this divisive game of power and resource grabbing. When the One-Unit was abolished and the provinces restored, the immigrants found themselves as an isolated and lonely community without any identity to link with. They lurched nervously from ethnic based fronts like Muhajir-Punjabi-Pathan United Front, Muhajir Rabita Council to Jamaat Islami and Jamiat Ulema e Pakistan while the majority community of the province was enthusiastically swelling the ranks of the mainstream Pakistan People’s Party.

The results of the general elections of 1970 and the stupid decisions of the military junta proved ominous for the Jinnah’s Pakistan. The power in the humiliated and truncated Pakistan was handed over to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Though Bhutto rode to election victory on the crest of mass popularity, he fell back on the traditional patron-client politics strengthening his party men from the landlord clan of politicians appointing their sons and nephews to lucrative and powerful positions in the bureaucracy to the peril of common people. The immigrant community persisted in their isolation and frantic search of an identity at par with the four nationalities in the new Pakistan indulging in controversies with the majority community on one pretext or the other.

The political blunders committed by Z.A. Bhutto and the PNA leadership plunged the country in the second Martial Law. The unprecedented repression by the Martial Law authorities helped the PPP regain its lost mass popularity. The Military Junta found an easy partnership with the highly nervous, insecure and frustrated Muhajir community to undermine the mass support for Bhutto and to strengthen the establishment’s control on the resources of Sindh by aiding and abetting the creation of the Muhajir Qaumi Movement. This ethnic division hammered the last nail in the social and cultural harmony of Sindh and foiled all the hopes forunity in diversity in the province, or waging any joint fight by its sons and daughters for the preservation of its rights as the second largest federating unit with rich resources – Seaports, water, arable land, mega cities, stock exchange and thriving financial and business centres.

The Muhajir leaders never paused to introspect over their suicidal political and social behaviour notwithstanding the ominous consequences of their fallacious ethnic, linguistic, political and cultural aloofness in the former East Pakistan. In Sindh, they have gone farther to demand a separate province for themselves to the explicit ridicule of the ground realities. They never thought of coming forward and benefitting from the traditional generosity of Sindh to embrace all ethnic and linguistic communities into its polity. The examples of Syeds, Durranis, Baloch, Brohis, Mirzas and Baigs are relevant to quote here. The Muhajir community, in its isolation and search for a separate identity, has already lost one full generation in politics of ethnic hatred and traversed streams of blood. Though Muhajir leaders were partners in power with the PPP on many occasions, and wielded independent control over the mega cities of Karachi and Hyderabad from 2000-2008, they failed to bring any worthwhile improvement in the lives of their community or the infrastructure of these cities.

Like time, the evolutionary wheel of history waits for none. This wheel will keep on spinning favoring the majority community andrelegating the obstinate minorities into obscurity. The wise and farsighted leaders keep an eye on the undercurrents of history and guide their communities to safe shores. The safety and well being of Mohajirs lie in accepting Sindh as their indivisible land frustrating the machinations of those who conspire to pray on its precious resources. Mind it, dear men, the fragmentation of Sindh will serve none including Sindhis, Mohajirs and Pakistan.

The author was a member of the Foreign Service of Pakistan and he has authored two books