Sindh card
Thursday, December 03, 2009
Nothing Mr Zardari or his minions do should shock the nation anymore because we have all come to expect the worse from them. At their recent rally in Karachi, they claimed that the Quaid-e-Azam too used the Sindh card by getting the Pakistan Resolution passed by the Sindh Assembly. The fact is that the Quaid-e-Azam did not use the Sindh card. He used the Muslim card and he used it in the movement for national liberation. The present rulers want to use the Sindh card for their own personal agenda, without any benefit accruing to Sindh. No legitimate parallel can be drawn between the two situations, much less between the two leaders. After all, the present-day rulers used the Benazir Bhutto murder card to get into power, but what have they done to apprehend and punish her killers?
It is high time they stopped using various 'cards' solely for the sake of preserving their pointless hold on power, from which the nation benefited not one iota, and either started giving the people real relief from their backbreaking burdens or made room for someone else who could make an honest effort in that direction.
Ameer Bhutto
Larkana
*****
This refers to a news report titled "PPP jumps on board 'Sindhi cap day' bandwagon" (December 2). One wonders how and why the Sindhi cap has suddenly become the subject of a political debate. On the 43rd foundation day of the PPP Sindh Interior Minister Zulfiqar Mirza threatened to 'pull out the tongue' which spoke ill of the Sindhi cap. Now the Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah has jumped on the Sindhi cap day bandwagon and asked the PPP leadership and workers to "actively observe the Sindhi cap day on December 6 so as to protect its dignity".
Pakistanis don a variety of headgears such as the Sindhi cap, pugri (or pug), kullah, turban, knitted skull cap and Jinnah karakuli depending on their tradition. We all respect the various headgears worn in the country without exception. So what is the issue about the Sindhi cap? It is the grey matter under the cap which is more important because this either elevates or belittles the dignity of the headgear one dons. Threats like 'pulling out the tongue' certainly do not add feathers to one's cap.
But is the Sindhi cap the most pressing issue of the province? Or abject poverty, ignorance, corruption, widespread unemployment, crumbling infrastructure, absence of law and order, unavailability of clean water, electricity and health care facilities and inflation are more pressing issues? It would have been more constructive and thoughtful had the Sindh chief minister urged his party leadership and workers to 'actively observe' anti-poverty and anti-wadera shahi days in the province. This is the time to work for the progress, prosperity and development of the province, instead of pulling a rabbit out of the hat, Mr Chief Minister.
M S Hasan
Karachi
