"Sindh Screams"
A blog by Sahwish Sulehria
Conditions of other sectors of Sindh are even worst. Listed below is heart breaking statistics showing true performance of “Roti, Kapra, Makaan” chanters over decades.
• In 1951, there were 2 million children deprived of education in Sindh, while according to 1998 survey number exceeded to 5.5 million
• Over 7 million Sindhi children out of school
• On average 87% of girls and 73% of boys living in rural areas of Sindh are not enrolled in schools
• In Shikarpur, 80% children either do not go to school or do not have schooling facility
• 75% of fifth-graders in Sindh cannot read simple English sentence
• 50% of Sindh’s population is under poverty line and living a very miserable life
In year 1968-69, a great democratic movement erupted all over Pakistan and Pakistanis said LABBAIK to the call of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and his slogan, “Roti, Kapra, Makaan”. The charisma of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s personality and his magical slogan won hearts of millions of Pakistanis and his party Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians (PPPP) swept West Pakistan in General Elections 1970. The pressure of democratic movement of 1968-70 no doubt gave birth to the constitution of 1973 but the movement which had gone one step forward in 1968-70 was thrown two steps back in year 1977 when Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto faced judicial victimisation and was hanged. Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto continued the political journey of his father (Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto), as a result of which PPP rose from ashes and emerged as the largest party in parliament in General Elections, 1988.
Nawaz Sharif (the product of Zia-ul-Haq and Martial law), the Chief Minister Punjab, had refused to acknowledge the central government of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto. Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) did have a a strong hold in Punjab, which it later lost, due the mastery of the Sharif brothers in baiting and buying MPAs and MNAs. Nawaz Sharif did all he could by hook or crook to win the majority in most populated province of Pakistan. Because of Nawaz Sharif’s dirty play, PPP lost their strong hold over Punjab. In the General Elections of 1993 however, PPP won the most seats again and formed central Government. It failed however, to deliver as per its manifesto and slogan.
On 27th Dec, 2007 Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto was assassinated. Predictably. PPP won most seats in General Election 2008 and got yet another golden chance to govern and prove itself but again failed badly. The party which proved to be National Party at one time, has restricted itself to the Sindh only because of its ZERO governance followed by nepotism and misuse of people’s mandate. It ruined national institutions and resources leaving them good for nothing. Corruption cases of its ministers, whether federal or provincial, brought upon shame to its history. It seems as though PPP took revenge from its strong hold Sindh for reposing confidence over it and caused fatal damage to integrity, economy, human development and the developmental structure of Sindh.
PPP has been insulting its own slogan, “Roti, Kapra, Makaan” since decades. It has delivered NOTHING. The otther political party which shares the responsibility is Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), which has enjoyed being in power in almost every term. All MQM did and is doing is playing hide and seek with PPP in Sindh.
In Interior Sindh, the only remianing strong hold of PPP, death is dancing at tunes of Bhutto in areas like Thar. No day goes without the arrival of terrible news. Thar is rich in reserves of coal, salt, granite, china clay like no other place in Pakistan. It has 175 billion ton coal reserves, the worth of which is more than the cost of 50 billion ton crude oil. In the land, which worth trillions of dollars, hundreds of precious lives have been lost due to food shortage, lack of medicines and unavailability of doctors. Qaim Ali Shah, Chief Minister Sindh with extra lifelines, found nothing wrong and shamelessly lied on the floor of Assembly that not a single child has died due to food shortage or drought in Thar. Perhaps he does not know the facts as he never troubled himself to visit Thar. Actually, he went for photo shoot, had lunch with his team at cost of many lives, announced aid which was never distributed and left 300,000 bottles of mineral water meant for drought victims in Thar to expire in the warehouse.
Conditions of other sectors of Sindh are even worst. Listed below is heart breaking statistics showing true performance of “Roti, Kapra, Makaan” chanters over decades.
• In 1951, there were 2 million children deprived of education in Sindh, while according to 1998 survey number exceeded to 5.5 million
• Over 7 million Sindhi children out of school
• On average 87% of girls and 73% of boys living in rural areas of Sindh are not enrolled in schools
• In Shikarpur, 80% children either do not go to school or do not have schooling facility
• 75% of fifth-graders in Sindh cannot read simple English sentence
• 50% of Sindh’s population is under poverty line and living a very miserable life
Every 20 minutes, one woman dies in Sindh due to pregnancy or delivery related complications
• The infant mortality rate is 95 per 1000 births
• 40% of Sindh’s population is Hepatitis positive
• 80% of hospitals have no specialist doctor available
• 60% of women and 53% of men are facing psychological problems
• Only 27% child births take place in proper health facilities in Sindh
• In children’s health, Sindh has the highest rate of undernourished children, which is 40%
• 62% mothers are undernourished and 73% children are anaemic
• Food insecurity is as high as 72%
• Sindh has 99% Hepatitis reservoirs of Pakistan
• 70% children below the age of one year are not immunized for measles
• ‘Official’ immunization 2010-12: 100% in Benazirabad, 90% in Kashmore, Naushehro Feroze, Larkana, Khairpur, yet measles epidemic!
• There are 2 physicians per 100,000 population
• 78% of population in Sindh lives under $1 per day
• 58% of population has no sanitation facility
• 26% of population do not have access to drinkable water
• Sindh is the poorest, most food deprived province of country
Though I do not have very good opinion about Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto as a political leader (which is surely debatable), in my opinion PPP died the day he was hanged till death. Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto chanted the same empty slogan and continued her father’s political journey, successfully or not, paused on 27th Dec, 2007 and never resumed.
PPP tried to revive itself through Jalsa in Karachi on 18th October, 2014, where it allegedly spent 1.5 Billion Rupees and used government machinery but all in vein as people of Sindh, especially Karachi rejected PPP. The Jalsa was meant to be organized to pay tribute to Shuhda of “Saneha-e-Kaarsaz” (18th October, 2007) but shockingly there was not a single moment of silence for this cause and Chairman of PPP, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari kept chanting his party’s famous empty slogans, incorrectly.
Political differences aside, Bilawal Bhutto or Bilawal Zardari shall I say, seriously lacks the intentions and leadership qualities required to revive nearly extinct PPP.
Whenever PPP Chants, “Bhutto is alive”, SINDH SCREAMS!!!
Sindh Screams By Sahwish Sulehria