SINDHI ASSOCIATION OF NORTH AMERICA
RALLY
IN WASHINGTON, DC
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Joint
Rally by North American Sindhi Organizations demanded UN intervention to assure
and monitor water distribution in Pakistan.
Indus
Water Rights Action - an environmental rights advocacy group formed by Sindhi
Association of North America (SANA), World Sindhi Congress (WSC), The World
Sindhi Institute (WSI) organized a demonstration in front of the Pakistan
Embassy in Washington DC on May 18th, 2001 to protest over the Pakistani
Government's unfair distribution of Indus water. Hundreds of social, political,
environmental, and human rights activists from different parts of North America
and Sindhis and Balochs around the world came to attend this historic rally. The
rally was organized to protest the Pakistani Government's unfair policies for
distribution of Indus water among the four supposedly autonomous provincial
units of present-day Pakistan. These unfair policies exercised throughout the
history of Pakistan have rendered Sindh, Balochistan and parts of Lower Punjab
virtually deserted. Many towns and villages in Sindh severely lack drinking
water sources bringing a heavy toll on millions of people involved in
agriculture industry. If these conditions persist, a severe drought is likely to
hit many areas in Sindh and Balochistan. This will trigger a mass exodus from
inner Sindh to the cities of Pakistan. The Joint rally of Sindhi organizations
held that the current tragedy is a logical outcome of an on-going piracy of
Indus River in Pakistan. This act of aggression by the upper riparian of Punjab
has deprived the lower riparian of Sindh of their due share in the water and has
promoted environmental degradation in all four provinces of Pakistan. It is
obvious that the Pakistani Government is quick to use current crisis to justify
building yet another dam on River Indus at Kalabagh (or another site) in spite
of unanimous opposition by the three affected provinces and parts of Punjab
province. The speakers maintained that the fifty-four years of bad governments
in Pakistan, hundreds of broken promises, frequent military takeovers, misplaced
priorities in public policy, violation of many covenants and accords, and a
total disregard for the individual and collective human rights, Sindhis are less
likely to trust any assurances without proper process of mitigation. They
demanded that the water distribution issue in Pakistan should be settled
according to the Sindh-Punjab Agreement of 1945. It was also demanded that the
special United Nations commission should be entrusted to monitor daily water
distribution between Sindh and Punjab provinces. This rally was the best display
of the grass root mobilization of Sindhi community in North America, as well as
the unity of oppressed nations of Pakistan. Several Baloch, and Seraiki
activists along with their families participated in this rally. IWRA
representatives, Mr. Iqbal Tareen of SANA, Dr. Safdar Sarki of WSC, and Mr.
Sohail Ansari of WSI presented a Memorandum of Demands to Pakistan Embassy at
the end of the protest. Prominent amongst those who addressed the rally
included, Mr. Khalid Hashmani, Keerat Babani of Sindhi Sabha, Sohail Ansari of
WSI, Saghir Shaikh of WSC, Iqbal Tareen from SANA, Dr. Tara Chand, former
minister Baluchistan Government, Wahid Baluch, former Speaker Baluchistan
Assembly, Syed Ghulam Shah of JSM, Munawar Laghari of WSI and Hasan Mujtaba, who
recited an inspirational Sindhi poetry eulogizing Indus Water crisis.
901 E. Main Ave., Robstown, TX 78380
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