KARACHI: The Sindh Action Committee (SAC), an alliance of several organisations mostly nationalists, on Sunday urged the Supreme Court of Pakistan to take notice of what its leaders called deliberately submerging Sindh in rainwater, and taking the responsible to task for this colossal loss of human lives, crops and infrastructure.

A protest rally was staged by the SAC from Fawara Chowk to Karachi Press Club.

“Sindh demands that the Supreme Court should take suo motu notice of recent floods which devastated Sindh, fixing the responsibility of this large scale devastation and recommending severe punishment to the concerned officials and the decision makers,” said the SAC leaders.

The speakers said: “The present government of Sindh should be dismissed because of criminal negligence and corrupt mindset which caused the devastation of more than 20 million lives in Sindh.”

Demanding rehabilitation of millions of flood affected people, the leaders like Syed Jalal Mehmood Shah, Syed Zain Shah, Ayaz Latif Palijo, Safdar Abbasi, Dr Niaz Kalani, Haider Shahani, Nawaz Shah, Nawaz Zaur, Masroor Shah, Roshan Buriro and others said that if their demands would not be fulfilled, they would be compelled to expand the protest.

Speaking on the occasion, SAC convener Syed Jalal Mehmood Shah said it was negligence and corruption of the Pakistan Peoples Party, which led to drowning of the Sindh.

Sindh United Party President Syed Zain Shah said lacs of acres of lands were inundated with water and there was no mechanism to drain that out.

Qaumi Awami Tehreek President Ayaz Latif Palijo said Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan came to Karachi on Saturday, but did not bother to meet with flood affected people.

He alleged that Sindh was being ‘pushed towards militancy’.

“Urdu-speaking people of Sindh are our brethren and we are not extremists. We, Urdu- and Sindhi-speaking people, are jointly demanding that illegal immigrants be expelled from Sindh.”

Resolutions

Several resolutions were also passed on this occasion by the participants.

The speakers demanded urgent and appropriate actions to drain water from all drowned villages, towns and roads of Sindh with immediate effect, rehabilitation of all flood affected people with provision of proper homes, health facilities, sources of income and education, and two-year waiver of all taxes on agriculture.

Other demands included provision of interest-free loans for new crop cultivation, waiving of all previous loans of flood affected people, clearing of all waterways before monsoon 2023, protecting and strengthening of all bunds of irrigation system and drainage facilities including river Indus.

The SAC also demanded establishing an ‘independent authority consisting of experts for rehabilitation work and its monitoring’.

They accused the PPP-led provincial government of ‘usurping’ at least Rs10,000 billion from 2008 till 2022, and said this should be recovered from PPP leadership and cabinet of its government.

They demanded public accountability of the rulers of Sindh and Pakistan and urged the United Nations and other world bodies to devise a ‘fool proof monitoring system’ for just and transparent distribution of international humanitarian aid since “Sindh has zero trust in the ruling elite”.

Published in Dawn, October 17th, 2022