HYDERABAD: Sindh Taraqqi-pasand Party (STP) chairman Dr Qadir Magsi has criticised Pakistan Peoples Party government and its leadership for strengthening sardari system in the province.

Jagirdari system was unacceptable in any form, be it in the garb of socialism, nationalism or democracy because a jagirdar was always anti-people, he said while speaking at a gathering of party workers at a local hotel here on Monday.

He said that people should not expect any good coming from past or present party leadership. Even those who had written columns in praise of the PPP leader were now condemning the jirga that had settled Prof Ajmal Sawand’s murder, he said.

Dr Magsi claimed that a medical superintendent’s job was sold for Rs100 million in Sindh and that of a police constable, baildar and peon was Rs1m. “As Sindhi nation, we are dead and that’s why Afghan refugees are settling here without any fear,” he remarked.

He said that Sindhis were unwittingly parceling out their lands to the highest bidders in the same way as Arabs hastened to earn high profits by selling their precious land to Jews, who later occupied Palestine. Sindhi youth were falling prey to drug addiction and schools remained padlocked across the province, he said.

He observed that 75,000 schoolchildren remained out of school and backwardness had pushed Sindhi people into impoverishment. Hospitals were running without medicines and young children were working as labourers instead of being in schools, he regretted. He said that jagirdari was allowed to work here in the garb of nationalism but politics

of Hyder Bux Jatoi and Jam

Saqi would not be permitted. Increasing lawlessness had destroyed Sindh and dacoits had held five districts hostage, he said.

Dr Magsi accused members of Sindh cabinet of patronising jagirdars and harbouring dacoits. Drug trade had made people billionaires and officers as well as elected representatives were part of this dirty business, while youth were driven to suicide due to joblessness and starvation, he said.

He said that STP had been running this campaign for last two years to unite all forces on one platform. Sindh’s jagirdar and sardar class were responsible for all the ills afflicting the province, he said.

He called for severing ties with anti-Sindh and anti-people forces and politicians and said Sindh would have to identify its real heroes. Peoples’ emancipation was not possible without a consistent struggle and sending haris and members of working class to assemblies, he said.

The gathering passed a number of resolutions, demanding recovery of Priya Kumari, arrest of the killers of journalists Nasrullah Gadani and Jan Mohammad Mahar, and creation of a Sindh paramilitary force to eliminate dacoits.

Practical steps should be taken to curb narcotics’ sale in Sindh, all closed schools should be opened, price hike should be controlled and policemen involved in the murder of Saira Samoon in Keti Bunder should be suspended and booked, said the resolutions.

Published in Dawn, July 9th, 2024