International Sindhi Women Organisation (ISWO)- Endeavour to Empower Sindhi Women

Press Release: London, 14TH Dec 2011 – A first meeting of International Sindhi Women Organisation (ISWO) was organised in London on 11th Dec 2011. ISWO has been recently setup in UK and aiming to be set up in other places such as USA, Canada, Australia and Sindh in forthcoming years. ISWO endeavours to empower Sindhi women around the world through capacity building and leadership. ISWO is committed to promoting Sindhi women’s human, civil and political rights at local, national and international platforms. ISWO is also dedicated to advance Sindhi women’s role in policy and decision making processes in all spheres of society including:

Mujib’s 6 points

1. The constitution should provide for a Federation of Pakistan in its true sense on the 1940 Lahore Resolution and the parliamentary form of government with supremacy of a legislature directly elected on the basis of universal adult franchise.

2. The federal government should deal with only two subjects: defence and foreign affairs, and all other residuary subjects shall be vested in the federating states.

3. Two separate, but freely convertible currencies for two wings should be introduced; or if this is not feasible, there should be one currency for the whole country, but effective constitutional provisions should be introduced to stop the flight of capital from East to West Pakistan. Furthermore, a separate banking reserve should be established and separate fiscal and monetary policy be adopted for East Pakistan.

4. The power of taxation and revenue collection shall be vested in the federating units and the federal centre will have no such power. The federation will be entitled to a share in the state taxes to meet its expenditures.

5. There should be two separate accounts for the foreign exchange earnings of the two wings; the foreign exchange requirements of the federal government should be met by the two wings equally or in a ratio to be fixed; indigenous products should move free of duty between the two wings, and the constitution should empower the units to establish trade links with foreign countries.

6. East Pakistan should have a separate militia or paramilitary forces.

Source – Sindhi e-lists/ e-groups, April 21, 2011.