Sindh Should be divided into 3 Provinces on administrative grounds

By Syed Atiq ul Hassan

Induction of Quota System in 1973 dividing Sindh as Sindh Rural and Sindh Urban, favoritism and injustices in jobs and admissions in higher educational & professional institutes, political recruitments in police, courts, administration and other Government machinery and an un-official ban of Muhajirs in higher jobs by PPP Governments as a political revenge have created an incompetent and failed administration of Sindh Province in the 40 years or so. Today, almost every top position in all Sindh Government’s department has been occupied by the workers and followers of Pakistan People Party (PPP) and on the will of PPP’s political leaders, parliamentarians and vaderas (landlords).

Today, the common people Sindh – in Sindh Rural and Sind Urban – are suffering with lack of quality education, health facilities, safe, secure and clean environment. Citizens are dying every day in Thar due to lack of water, food and medical treatment.

After the fall of East Pakistan, in the remaining Pakistan whenever political governments came into power and formed so-called democratic government, Pakistan People Party (PPP) has ruled the province of Sindh. The Quota System was introduced in 1973 by then PPP’s government of Zulfiqar Bhutto divided the province of Sindh into Sindh Rural and Sindh Urban on the name providing more government & administrative jobs and admissions in higher education & professional institutes to the people of Sindh Rural. The Sindh Urban was constituted on Karachi, Hyderabad and Sukkur and the rest was constituted as Sindh Rural. Through this division Sindh was used as a tool to buy the votes from Sindhi Speaking on the name of Sindhi Quom (Nation).

Article 27 of the 1973 constitution says, ‘no citizens otherwise qualified in the service of Pakistan shall be discriminated against in respect of race, religion, caste, sex, residence or place of birth’. In the same article conflicting amendment was done to introduce Quota in Federal and Local government jobs, Sindh was divided in jobs based on Sindh Rural and Sindh Urban which was not done in other provinces. Only 3 cities Karachi, Hyderabad and Sukkur were declared as part of Sindh Urban. More than 60 percent population in these 3 cities were Muhajirs therefore the only people targeted were the more educated and qualified Muhajirs. Further cruelty was that Sindh Government has introduced the same quota system in higher educational and professional institutes and in all the jobs in Sindh Government. Quota system was declared un-Islamic by Federal Shariat Court (FSC) but no action was taken by any government. The jobs in police, courts, education, hospitals, and other departments un-officially banned on Muhajirs. Today, one can hardly find any Muhajir on any top job in the Sindh Government. Even in Sindh Rural the jobs and admission in higher educational institutes are given on political basis. Today, most of the top officials in Sindh government are the workers and supporters of PPP. The PPP Sindh is provenly a racist party as they have never selected any Muhajir as a Chief Minister, top Minister or top bureaucrat, it has to be a Sindhi speaking whom they consider the only Sindhis in Sindh.

Originally, in 1973, the Quota System was fixed for a period of 10 years but the governments in the 1980s, and in 1990s enhanced it to 40 years which was expired in 2012, then in August 2013, the cabinet, chaired by then Prime Minister Mohammad Nawaz Sharif gave its approval to the constitutional amendment in the first provision of Article 27(1) and extended for the next 20 years. The so-called voice of Muhajirs, Motehida Quomi Movement (MQM) did not show any real resistance to the extension and it was passed from the national assembly to remain intact until 2033. The allocation of this unjust Quota System is as follows:

Merit 7.5 %

Punjab 50%

Sindh 19% where

Sindh Urban (Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkar) 7.6% and

Sindh Rural (Remaining) 11.4%

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa 11.5%
Balochistan 6%
Gilgit-Baltistan and FATA 4%
Azad Jammu and Kashmir 2%

Presumably, Quota System was introduced in order to allocate proportionally the government jobs but in Sindh it was used by PPP to serve their political interest. Fewer positions (in the quota) was given to urban areas and more positions given to rural areas in all government jobs and higher professional colleges and universities.

Over 60 percent budget of Sindh Government is allocated to Sindh Rural yet no any development or better facilities can be seen in the cities, towns and villages of Sindh Rural, these areas are still backward with the lack of basic facilities to the common citizens, and the simple reason is that these funds are used by PPP ministers, parliamentarians and political affiliates for their own interest and making their own assets in foreign countries through corruption and illegal means.

Every year billions of Rupees are allocated on education, health, and infrastructure where over 60 percent to the Sind Rural, yet forget about development, the government failed to maintain acceptable standard in education, health, and infrastructure in cities, towns and villages. This year of FY2018-19 Sindh government has outlaid Rs.1.44 trillion with Rs 20.45 billion deficit. Now where this deficit will come from. The PPP government since they are in power in Sindh has drowned the state in billions of dollars debts.

Both PPP in Sindh Rural and MQM in Sindh Urban have used Sindhis and Muhajirs as their political agenda and achieved their own party agendas. Particularly, PPP who has been in power most of the time has done nothing to elevate the lives of the common people. Corruption and criminalities are part of culture in Sindh now. Might is Right, who has a power does whatever he/she wants right or wrong. Police has totally been politicized and criminals are serving in top positions in police, courts are not delivering justice on time, doctors, engineering and other graduates coming from a failed education system are incompetent and got jobs on political affiliations.

The rulers of Sindh have created mess in the 40 years in Sindh. The Federal powers and national political parties have shown no interest to abolish the discriminative quota system. The 2 top political parties Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Mutehida Quomi Movement (MQM) in Sindh have divided the people of Sindh on the name ethnicity and delivered nothing for their benefits. Unfortunately, the MQM so-called the only representative of Muhajirs have provenly failed to address and resolve the issues of Muhajirs.

The majority of the population of Sindh are living below the poverty line. It may be Ruler Sindh or Urban Sindh people have no satisfactory facilities for their basic needs. The level of education, health, jobs, businesses are at its lowest level. Children are dying every single day in Thar for lack of water, food and health facilities. Without going in the details of all these issues as everything on surface now and known to all stakeholders of Pakistan know very well therefore if the sincere powers of the state of Pakistan have to maintain the integrity of Pakistan then Pakistan will have to run on the prime principle of ideology of Pakistan that is equal rights for every citizen of Pakistan with any discrimination of land, religion, culture or language. Especially the discrimination against Muhajirs by Sindh rulers must stop now.

When the division of Sindh Rural and Sindh Urban was done through Quota System in 1973, the population of Sindh was 14,155,909 according to the censes November 1972. Today the population of Sindh is 47,893,244 according to the census of March 2017. The entire demographic of Sindh has been changed. More and more towns become cities in population. For example, looking into the population of Hyderabad in 1973, today Mirpurkhas and Nawabshah are bigger in population.  This division of Sindh Rural and Sind Urban is obsolete now.

Therefore, Sindh of today cannot be run with its present size of population and its needs. The division made in 1973 (Rural and Urban) cannot be continued particularly by this incompetent and corrupt government.

While proposed provinces in Punjab are in debate and an amendment bill has been lodged recently in federal parliament to create Bhawalpur and South Punjab as new provinces in Punjab. This is now time to put the agenda on table and deal the matters with courage and sincerity for the people of Sindh indiscriminately.

In this critical time and before it gets too late as the anti-Pakistan elements consciously backing people like Altaf Hussain to demand for a separate state, the federal power of Pakistan must force government in power to restructure Sindh. The only solution for the betterment of all the citizens of Sindh indiscriminately is the administrative divisions of Sindh by creating more provinces through merging existing divisions. Currently Sindh is divided into 6 divisions and many districts within each division as shown in the table below.

Divisions of Sindh Districts Tehsils/Talukas
1.        LARKANA LARKANA BAKRANI
DOKRI
LARKANA
RATO DERO
KASHMORE KANDHKOT
KASHMORE
TANGWANI
SHIKARPUR GARHI YASIN
KHANPUR
LAKHI
SHIKARPUR
JACOBABAD GARHI KHAIRO
JACOBABAD
THUL
KAMBAR SHAHDADKOT KAMBAR
KUBO SAEED KHAN
MIRO KHAN
NASIRABAD
SHAHDADKOT
SUJAWAL JUNEJO
WARAH
2.        SUKKUR SUKKUR NEW SUKKUR
PANO AQIL
ROHRI
SALEHPAT
SUKKUR
GHOTKI (AT MIRPUR MATHELO) DAHARKI
GHOTKI
KHANGARH (KHANPUR)
MIRPUR MATHELO
UBAURO
KHAIRPUR FAIZ GANJ
GAMBAT
KHAIRPUR
KINGRI
KOT DIJI
MIRWAH
NARA
SOBHODERO
3.        SHAHEED BENAZIRABAD SHAHEED BENAZIRABAD DAUR
NAWAB SHAH
QAZI AHMED
SAKRAND
NAUSHAHRO FEROZE BHIRIA
KANDIORO
MEHRABPUR
MORO
NAUSHAHRO FEROZE
SANGHAR JAM NAWAZ ALI
KHIPRO
SANGHAR
SHAHDADPUR
SINJHORO
TANDO ADAM
4.        HYDERABAD HYDERABAD HYDERABAD City
HYDERABAD
LATIFABAD
QASIMABAD
JAMSHORO KOTRI
MANJHAND
SEHWAN
THANO BULA KHAN
DADU DADU
JOHI
KHAIRPUR NATHAN SHAH
MEHAR
MATIARI HALA
MATIARI
SAEEDABAD
TANDO ALLAHYAR CHAMBER
JHANDO MARI
TANDO ALLAHYAR
TANDO MUHAMMAD KHAN BULRI SHAH KARIM
TANDO GHULAM HYDER
TANDO MOHAMMAD KHAN
BADIN BADIN
MATLI
SHAHEED FAZAL RAHU
TALHAR
TANDO BAGO
THATTA GHORABARI
KETI BUNDER
MIRPUR SAKRO
THATTA
SUJAWAL JATI
KHARO CHAN
MIRPUR BATHORO
SHAH BUNDER
SUJAWAL
5.        MIRPUR KHAS MIRPUR KHAS DIGRI
HUSSAIN BUX MARRI
JHUDDO
KOT GHULAM MOHAMMAD
MIRPUR KHAS
SHUJABAD
SINDHRI
THARPARKAR CHACHRO
DHALI
DIPLO
ISLAMKOT
KALOI
MITHI
NAGAR PARKAR
UMERKOT KUNRI
PITHORO
SAMARO
UMERKOT
6.        KARACHI KARACHI EAST FEROZABAD SUB-DIVISION
GULSHAN-E-IQBAL SUB-DIVISION
GULZAR-E-HIJRI SUB-DIVISION
JAMSHED QUARTER SUB-DIVISION
KARACHI WEST MAURIPUR SUB-DIVISION
HARBOUR SUB-DIVISION
ORANGI SUB-DIVISION
MOMINABAD SUB-DIVISION
SITE SUB-DIVISION
BALDIA SUB-DIVISION
MANGHOPIR SUB-DIVISION
KARACHI SOUTH ARAM BAGH SUB-DIVISION
CIVIL LINE SUB-DIVISION
GARDEN SUB-DIVISION
LYARI SUB-DIVISION
SADDAR SUB-DIVISION
KARACHI CENTRAL GULBERG SUB-DIVISION
LIAQUATABAD SUB-DIVISION
NAZIMABAD SUB-DIVISION
NEW KARACHI SUB-DIVISION
NORTH NAZIMABAD SUB-DIVISION
MALIR AIRPORT SUB-DIVISION
BIN QASIM SUB-DIVISION
GADAB SUB-DIVISION
IBRAHIM HYDERI SUB-DIVISION
MURAD MEMON SUB-DIVISION
SHAH MURAD SUB-DIVISION
KORANGI KORANGI SUB-DIVISION
LANDHI SUB-DIVISION
MADOL COLONY SUB-DIVISION
SHAH FAISAL SUB-DIVISION

These 6 divisions should be merged into 3 provinces:Division of Sindh Map 3 Provinces small

  1. Sindh North to be comprised of Lakana and Sukkur Divisions
  2. Sindh Central to be comprised of Hyderabad, Nawabshah (Benazirabad) and Mirpur Divisions
  3. Sindh South to be compromised of Karachi Division

Each Province – Sindh North, Sindh Central and Sindh South – should be declared as additional standard province of Pakistan with other existing provinces and should receive the equal share of province according to the constitution of Pakistan.

The so-called sympathizers and patriotic of Sindh who oppose the creation of more provinces in Sindh are basically the enemies of the people of Sindh. This fraud and corrupt mafia on the name of politics want to keep control of state power and its resources and people so that they can continue to achieve their own interest and making their own assets. Therefore, now people of Sindh don’t matter what their background will have to stand up and raise their voice for the 3 provinces of Sindh.

End

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