Daily Times

The unpublicized Pakistan Islands Development Authority ordinance (PIDA) issued by the President and published in the Gazette of Pakistan on 2 September 2020 caused commotion in Sindh. No sooner than the PIDA came to public notice, the people of Sindh responded spontaneously to the calls for protest by the comparatively smaller political parties, civil society, human rights organizations and the fisher community to display their anger and anguish against the takeover of Bundal and Buddo Islands by the Federal Government.

The people of Sindh were apprehensive about the silence of the ruling PPP and the duplicitous statements of the senior cabinet Ministers of Sindh on the question of the development of Bundal and Buddo Islands. The public protests that were gathering momentum shook the Chairman of Pakistan People’s Party out of his slumber and forced him to give a very harsh statement against the PIDA likening it with the night raid on Jammu and Kashmir on 5 August 2019 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He termed the PIDA unconstitutional and mala fide and an attack on the proprietary rights of Sindh on the Islands.

The Federal Minister for Maritime Affairs disclosed that the Government of Sindh had already given its consent and released a copy of the letter of the Secretary, Land Utilization of the Government of Sindh of 7 July 2020 written to the Cabinet Secretary in response to his letter of 2 July 2020 regarding the development of the Islands. These two letters have raised many pertinent questions instead of clearing the muddle about the matter. The letter of the Government of Sindh, referring to the decision taken by the Cabinet of Ministers, and unspecified terms and conditions and the protection of rights of local community, gives green signal to the Federal Government for the development of the Islands.

The ruthless development at the cost of the people benefitting the elites; causing deforestation, ecological degradation, polluting the Sea and rendering fishing community of 0.8 million jobless is too painful to be supported

The matter is shrouded in a mystery. The Federal Government’s letter of 2 July, the terms and conditions as referred to in the Government of Sindh’s letter of 7 July have not been made public. We know the slow and sluggish bureaucratic process to arrive at decisions. This is an absolutely incredible instance of unprecedented swiftness in deciding a complex and far important matter like the development of Islands sprawling over 12500 acres of precious land and surrounded by mangrove forests; working out its terms and conditions and reaching an agreement about the rights of the indigenous people within five days unless there were many clandestine rounds of talks and a prior agreement between the two governments.

If it is so; why the Government of Sindh or the Federal Government is shy of admitting all this? Has the Government of Sindh betrayed the trust of the people of Sindh or has it failed to protect the assets of the province as the custodian of them yielding to the pressure of the Federal Government for some ulterior motives? If no; why so much haste in responding to the letter of the Federal Government within five days? These mind boggling questions raise eye brows on the leadership of Bilawal. It seems he and the party leaders were kept out of the loop. Then, who took this important decision. Assuredly, he is not Syed Murad Ali Shah. He does not have the audacity to punch the bag more than his weight. The cost of the land in Pak currency is estimated intrillions. The footprints lead us to a secluded suite of a sick man in the Bilawal House.

The muddle will continue fuelling apprehensions and causing unrest in Sindh unless both the Governments reveal everything about the matter. The onus of this responsibility rests with the Government of Sindh. Whoever is responsible for this blunder, he has caused enormous embarrassment to Bilawal and landed the PPP in a quagmire. If the matter was under discussion between the two governments for some time, and there were no ulterior motive to the talks, why the Government of Sindh was so particular in keeping the people of the province, or the party leadership in darkness? Was the sick man seeking some relief in the NAB cases being tried in Accountability Courts? The local body elections are not far off and PPP will seek votes with this black spot on its brow. How the anti PPP forces will exploit this blunder is a matter of conjecture.

No sane person will oppose the development of Islands or the construction of new cities to release the population pressure on Karachi. But then the Housing Schemes conceived, planned and constructed should be affordable for the middle class and salaried people apart from the protection of mangrove forests, ecological environment and the sovereign rights of the indigenous people in consonance with the UN Conventions. The ruthless development at the cost of the people benefitting the elites; causing deforestation, ecological degradation, polluting the Sea and rendering fishing community of 0.8 million jobless is too painful to be supported. The people of Sindh will never compromise or yield to the pressure of the Federal Government to surrender their assets. They are too sensitive and too possessive of their sovereign rights.

They will put up a heroic resistance to protect their assets, a glimpse of which we have just witnessed when old and young women, and mothers with their breast feeding babies in their arms were marching in the suffocating weather of Karachi. Though Rasool Bukhsh Palijo and Fazal Rahoo are no more among them, their legacy was there to rouse crowds of thousands to march in protest singing rhymes from Shah Latif Bhitai and Shaikh Ayaz ecstatically lost in the love of their land. Their message to the anti-Sindh elements was loud and clear.

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