World Sindhi Congress participated in UN Human Rights Council, Geneva

Report by: Malik Dino Shaikh, London
WSC PARTIDCIPATES IN THE NINTH SESSION OF UN HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL, GENEVA
Press release:Ref. WSC/SM/05/54, 6th June 2008
Ms Suraiya Makhdoom, Senior Vice-Chair, World Sindhi Congress participated in the 9th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council held in Geneva .
During her visit, Ms Makhdoom spoke about the current situation in Sindh, attended the Human Rights Council, some of the NGOs briefings and met various delegates from all over the world.
Speaking in a briefing on South Asia , Ms Makhdoom highlighted the main current problems of Sindh, such as, Centralising of Sindh resources without the consent of the people of Sindh Examples:
Coal resources of Sindh are being taken away by the central govt.
The so-called Federal government has taken control of the coal resources of Sindh by creating a new body through a notification only. Thar Coal Authority, established by the Federal government, is to be managed by the Federal government and not the Sindh government, which was doing so under the provincial law and authority.

The Peoples Party government in Sindh resisted the above take over first, but finally gave in. The people of Sindh and the civil society have been protesting against this high- handedness of the federal government, but to no avail.
Ms Makhdoom said the federal government has been interfering with the development of coal resources of Sindh. In 2004 a Chinese company invested $1.5 billion in Thar by installing machinery but the federal government forcibly shut down the project.
The above move of the Central government is unconstitutional as the constitution guarantees provincial autonomy in this matter. The present government has shown to be no different than their predecessors in usurping the resources of Sindh.
Motorways and High ways of Sindh: the Central govt has taken away many Motorways or highways of Sindh. So now the people pay toll tax on their roads to the Central government instead of the Sindh government. This again shows the federal government has no respect for the constitution of the country. It does not pay any heed to the sentiments of the people of Sindh and has no interest in their welfare and self esteem.
Sindh language: the website of Sindh Assembly is in English and Urdu, but not in Sindhi. So the people of Sindh can’t access their Assembly site in their language.
Elaborating the point Ms Makhdoom said that Sindhi language has been the target of Pakistani establishment right from the inception of the country. The present elected government too is continuing with the same policies and have shown no signs of redressing the
damage done to Sindhi language by the previous regimes so much so that they have even failed to provide a website of the Sindh Assembly in Sindhi.
Answering the questions from the audience including the ones posed by MQM representatives, Ms Suraiya Makhdoom said Urdu was never in the Pakistan demand. There was no mention of Urdu in Pak Resolution of 1940 of any other proposals for the creation of Pakistan . Urdu was imposed only after the creation of Pakistan, which was resisted by Bengalis and by Sindhis.
As about Sindhi being the official language of Sindh, it is not a gift of Pakistan . Sindhi was the official language of Sindh even under the British rule. But
immediately after the creation of Pakistan , Urdu became the national language of the country. Consequently Sindhi medium schools were closed down and so forth. Hence Sindh lost its language as well as many other things by
joining Pakistan. When for the first time there was an elected govt in Sindh in the 1970s, Sindh Assembly passed the Sindhi Language Bill declaring Sindhi to be the official language of Sindh. But there were riots
against this bill and the result is that Sindhi is official language only in name. The last MQM led government in Sindhi closed down many Sindhi medium schools. Previously there used to be some sign posts in Sindhi, but during the last government, all the sign posts in Sindh, especially in the cities have been
written in Urdu and even the website of Sindh Assembly is not in Sindhi. PTV had only one hour programme in Sindhi, but Musharraf closed down that as well. Sindhi artists protested, but nothing happened.
The audience took a sympathetic view and even the Chair agreed that there were problems with the Sindhi language.
Reply to other questions, especially on the issue of Sindh always having Sindhi Chief Ministers, Ms Makhdoom said the during the last government, the Governor of Sindh, the Karachi Mayor and many ministers were Urdu speaking MQM members. So it is they who dictated the policies. Chief Minister was Sindhi, but from PML-Q who followed the government line. There was a time during the last government that there were less Sindhi speaking ministers in Sindh. Ms Makhdoom reminded the Chair that when she came to Geneva last time she had raised this issue of less Sindhi speaking Ministers in her briefing. It was only after the Sindhis protested that a few more Sindhi ministers were taken. The last government also demolished
Sindhi people’s houses.

Apart form the briefings, Ms Makhdoom attended the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Council’s meeting with the NGOS. That was very useful. It was good to see and hear the OHCHR in person. This meeting focussed on hearing NGO’s concerns, suggestions, etc. for
the conduct OF HR Commission business and other issues. The new UNHCHR, Ms
Navanethem Pillay Comes from South Africa . She was a front-line, grassroots lawyer who acted as a defence attorney for many anti-apartheid campaigners and trades
unionists. Her many illustrious assignments include serving as a judge on two of the most important
international criminal courts of the modern times, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and
International Criminal Court in the Hague. During her visit to the UN, Ms Makhdoom also attended the meeting of the UNHR Council, where on 18th September she had the honour of listening to the Emeritus Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who presented the Report of the special fact finding mission on the HR violations of Israel in Beit Hanoun.
On 19th September the Council debated agenda Item 8 entitled “Follow-up and implementation of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action.” In this debate, Two NGOs, Association for World Education and International Humanist and Ethical Union referred to the honour killings and other crimes against women in Pakistan. Humanist and Ethical Union mentioned recent cases in Punjab and Balouchistan and quoted a Pakistani Senator as saying, “these are centuries old traditions and I will continue to defend them.