A delegation of World Sindhi Congress including Dr. Haleem U. Bhatti, Secretary General, WSC and Mr. Giri Raisanghaney, Legal Advisor WSC attended 18th session of Working group on Indigenous Populations, Sub commission on Prevention and Discrimination of Minorities, at UN Geneva from 24th -28th July 2000.
Item 4 and Item 5 were important in relation to Sindh and Pakistan. Dr. Haleem Bhatti, Secretary General has submitted statements on item 4 and spoke on item 5
During this session WSC delegation met UN officials, representatives of other governments, other Non Governmental organizations and journalists from other countries. Delegation of WSC has informed other delegates and UN officials regarding current alarming situation in Pakistan and about the denial of basic rights to Sindhis including Right to self-determination to Sindhis as per UN charter.
Statement by: Dr. Haleem Bhatti, Secretary General World Sindhi Congress
Item 4: Indigenous Children and Youth.
Thank you Madam Chairperson for giving me floor on this important issue. The government of Pakistan has failed to protect the rights of children and young. Children are widely being exploited, abused & victimized. There are confirmed reports of child labor and child prostitution. According reports published in local papers five million children in Pakistan are in child labor. These children are largely employed by the carpet industry and sports goods industry. In Pakistan, some fundamentalists groups offer religious schooling to children from poor families. The children in those schools are trained and sent for war to Afghanistan, Kashmir, Chechnya and other parts of world, thus increasing the religious fundamentalism in the world. Sometimes these religious groups forcibly recruit indigenous youngsters and give them army training in camps in the name of Holy war or Jihad. International media has also reported presence of these camps in Pakistan & Pakistan army also funds these training camps.
Madam Chairperson, We are concerned for the health of indigenous infants
and young children. There is no proper medical treatment for indigenous
population and infant mortality rate is high in Pakistan. Government of
Pakistan has allocated less than 1% of budget on health. There is no proper
vaccination program in rural areas of Sindh, resulting in disability and
deaths of thousands indigenous children due to TB, meningitis, whooping
cough and pneumonia.
Madam Chairperson, The state has not only failed to protect the rights
of young women; it has neglected to promote attitudes, which will
permit them to enjoy these rights. Since, the enforcement of Shariat Laws,
thousands of young women have been unjustly involved with the criminal
justice system and subjected to sexual assault, torture and illegal confinement.
Several hundreds young girls were killed for allegedly dishonoring family.
Women's behavior which is though to bring dishonor to family including
alleged or real sexual relations outside marriage, choosing a marriage
partners against wishes of parents are seeking are divorced. Some women
are also considered to have dishonored their family are tribe because of
they have been raped. Defenders of women rights are also targeted
for their work.
Madam chairperson Indigenous Sindhi youths are discriminated with
regard to education and employment opportunities. There is no Sindhi medium
school in urban areas of Sindh and Sindhi youths are denied higher education.
All the development projects have been stopped in Sindh after taking
over of army in Pakistan. As a result there is poverty & mass unemployment
in indigenous Sindhi population. There is discrimination in recruitment
of Sindhis in Government, Semi government and autonomous departments. This
has caused depression and frustration among young educated Sindhis resulting
in increased number of suicides in Sindhi youths. Furthermore, Large number
of Sindhis have been sacked from their jobs without prior notice and replaced
by army personnel.
Madam Chairperson, We plead to international community to help Indigenous
Sindhi Children and youngsters in obtaining equal opportunities and rights
to health, education, employment and prosperity.
Thank you Madam Chairperson
Statement by: Dr. Haleem Bhatti, Secretary General, World Sindhi
Congress
Item 5: Review of recent development pertaining to the promotion
and protection of human rights and fundamental rights of Indigenous People.
Mr. Chairperson,
It is great pleasure for me to present in this august gathering, account
of sufferings of my Indigenous Sindhi brothers that is happening in
this civilized world and in new millennium. As its name indicates
World Sindhi Congress represents the interests of Sindh and Sindhis. Sindhis
are original inhabitants of Sindh, which has given birth and seen the glory
of well known ten thousands years old Indus Civilization.
Mr. Chairperson, Last year Army was called upon in Pakistan including
Sindh and we are concerned over De-facto Martial law. Constitution of Pakistan
has been suspended and special Military courts are setup in Sindh. The
trial in those Special summary military courts lasts less than a week and
people convicted in those courts have no right to appeal except to Chief
of army Staff. Trial by these Special Summary Military courts contravenes
principle 5 of the United Nations basic principle on independence of Judiciary
endorsed by the general Assembly in 1985. Also the security forces
without any proper charges & without any trial are arresting thousands
of Sindhis. Detainees are tortured and beaten to obtain false confession.
Fundamental rights of Sindhi people are being denied. Several Non-governmental
organizations working for welfare of citizens have been banned. There is
restriction and censorship for Sindhi press. Sindhi journalists are harassed
and persecuted by the security forces for exposing unfair treatment of
government towards Sindhi people. All the development programs in Sindh
have been suspended because of lack of resources and corruption of army
& bureaucrats. The natural resources of Sindh specially oil, gas, coal
and minerals are being indiscriminately exploited for quick commercial
gains and military purposes such as construction of military cantonments
in Sindh, expenses of military operation in Sindh and Nuclear explosion
Mr. Chairperson, We are concerned for victims of famine after severe drought in Thar, Sindh and Khuzdar, Blauchistan. According reports published in local newspapers at least 600 people died in Thar area of Sindh due to diseases related to drought. According to UN report published on 11 May 2000, this drought is worst natural disaster in the history of Pakistan; according to BBC report of 9th May, conditions are expected to deteriorate in Sindh & Baluchistan, where thousands of people are migrating in search of food & water. Government of Pakistan didn't ask for help from international relief agencies fearing that international aid workers will witness the poverty and plight of these people created by government's policies of developing Punjab at the expenses of other areas of Pakistan. The drought has not only caused illness and deaths but it has also exposed chronic social & economic problems in that area. We demand that government of Pakistan should consider development plans for Thar and other drought affected areas.
Mr. Chairperson, We are deeply concerned with the intention of Federal government regarding proposed construction of controversial Kalabagh Dam. It appears that despite of rejection of Kalabagh dam project by the environmental and irrigation experts and by the three out of four provinces of Pakistan i-e Sindh, Baluchistan & Northwest frontier Province, Government of Pakistan is planning to start this environmentally & ecologically disastrous project, only to please people of Punjab. The construction of Kalabagh may bring some land under cultivation in Punjab, but only at the cost of flooding & displacement of peoples in NWFP, economic and environmental disaster in Indus basin and at the cost of destruction & desertification of green and fertile land of Sindh. The construction of dam is likely to keep Indus River dry most of the year. Many fishermen living on the Indus will become homeless. Construction of dam will make the existing situation worse for Sindhis as Punjab will have more control on the water and Sindh will be more manipulated more than before by the Punjab dominated departments such as WAPDA.
Mr. Chairperson, There is deeply special spiritual relationship between Indigenous Sindhis and their land. They consider their land as mother and they want enjoy life on mother earth peacefully & freely without any restriction imposed on them. Agriculture remains the major source of income in Sindh, but regions agriculture industry is victim to the current unequal water distribution by the Punjab dominated government of Pakistan. Furthermore, native Sindhis have been forcibly evicted from their land, and their land has been allocated to army generals and bureaucrats.
Mr. Chairperson, The majority of Sindhi people speak Sindhi language in Sindh and Sindhi was the official language of the region even under British rule. In current undemocratic setup, the Sindhi language has been marginalized to such an extent that its survival is under threat. The state-controlled media only provide less than 30 minutes a day for Sindhi programs. Sindhi schools are systematically shut down especially in urban areas of Sindh.
Mr. Chairperson, Sindhis believe that right to self-determination is their inherent right, as per UN charter and international convent. By virtue of this right, Sindhis should be allowed freely to determine their political status and pursue their economic, social and cultural developments. In no case, should Sindhis be deprived of their own means of income of natural resources such as coal, gas and oil.
Thank you Mr. Chairperson
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