THATTA, May 4: Jeay Sindh Mahaz (JSM) believes that China is emerging as a dominating power in South Asia and gaining control of Pakistan’s rich coastal belt — right from Gwadar up to Thatta — but the people of Sindh are not going to benefit from the plans serving the interests of that friendly country.

This was stated by JSM chairman Riaz Chandio while addressing several election rallies held in Var, Ghulamullah and Ghorabari towns and some small settlements in Thatta on Saturday.

He said the people of Sindh must keep an eye on ‘usurpers’ of their lands who, according to him, were serving the vested interests.

In this regard, he referred to the proposed Zulfikarabad city and termed it a controversial mega project being executed with dubious intentions.

He expressed his apprehension that aliens might start taking control of the coastline from Zulfikarabad and extend their hold up to Rahimaki Bazaar — the last oceanic point in Badin district close to Indian territory — and this would turn the population of Thatta and Badin people into a minority. He said there were more than three dozen creeks and 275 big and small islands falling within the two districts whose lands and wealth would be at the disposal of the aliens.

He said (Sindhi) nationalists had never opposed development in their province as its interests were very dear to them. But, he explained, they (nationalists) could not compromise on the rights of the people of Sindh. He said they could not support any plan or project that reduced Sindhis to a minority within their areas in future.

He acknowledged that (Pakistan Peoples Party supreme) Asif Ali Zardari during the last days of the PPP tenure had assured the people of Sindh that all their legitimate rights would be ensured through legislation and that the people of Thatta district particularly residents of the Zulfikarabad project site would be given all their due rights during and after the execution of the mega project. However, Mr Chandio claimed, Mr Zardari intentionally made a particular non-Sindhi ethnic group in Sindh stronger in the name of the so-called ‘reconciliation’ at the cost of the rights of Sindhi people.

He told the audience that PPP did not establish a single academic or technical institution in Thatta during its five-year tenure. He said that fishing had long been the mainstay of Thatta population and a major source of livelihood for local people but the PPP government neglected this sector. Ultimately, he said, the lot of the people of Thatta did not improve at all.

JSM deputy secretary Syed Nawaz Shah Bhadai, Naban Khushik, Hyder Shah, Ashraf Khushik and others also spoke at the rallies. They said that according to a demographic survey of the four coastal talukas earmarked for the Zulfikarabad city project, their population would soar to 10 million within the next decade or so. If that happened, the local population would sure become a minority. The people of the entire province would also suffer irreparable losses in future, they apprehended.

The participants in the rallies carried black flags, besides the JSM flags, and wore black armbands. They raised slogans against the Zulfikarabad project and the PPP.

Earlier, they started their march from Makli and reached Ghorabari, some 78 kilometres away, to hold a demonstration and a public meeting.