Sindh Resistance struggle!

By: Badaruddin Kalhoro,  Bureau Chief Lahore International London

Although in the history of Pakistan, Sindh has only experienced good times, but the day of October 14, 1955 brought a dark period of misfortunes for Sindh, which lasted for almost fifteen years (from October 14, 1955 to July 1, 1970). In the period from 1847 to 1935, after 88 years, Sindh was not an independent country, but the provincial status it had gained was taken away from this country in 1955. When the British conquered Sindh in 1843, there were 103 years out of a period of 170 years, in which Sindh could not get a separate administrative status and the rest of the time Sindh was divided into provincial status. Before the decade from 1937 to 1947, Sindh could not benefit due to the Internal parliamentary political chaos and the independence that Sindh has enjoyed even after the 15-year black period of one unit after partition is an open secret. Therefore, it can be said that for the last 170 years, Sindh has not been able to get its real independent status. Although the declaration of unity was made on October 14, 1955, in reality, its foundations, as far as thought was concerned, had been conditioned by the formation of Pakistan. In November 1947, Jinnah’s adviser on economic affairs, Sir Archibald Rowlands, was the first to give this advice, which Jinnah did not oppose, but he avoided it by saying that the conditions were not yet favorable for him. I want to apply one unit. Finally, in the Constituent Assembly on March 2, 1949, Malik Feroze Khan Noon presented the same proposal, which Begum Jahanara Shahnaz supported and said that the thirty-four districts of West Pakistan should be merged to form one province. The tragedy of history is that the then secretary general of the Muslim League, Muhammad Yusuf Khattak, who claimed the struggle for provincial autonomy in the British rule, also said that this would bring an end to provincialism in Pakistan. was personally frozen. The then Chief Minister of Punjab, Mian Mumtaz Dalutana, opposed the federal system in Pakistan and emphasized on the system based on centralization of powers in the country, which was in favor of Punjab and was not a real federal system but a unitary system. The only newspaper from Sindh strongly opposed it, which was subsequently closed without any notice as punishment for the same ‘crime’. However, due to multi-faceted opposition, the plan was postponed by the Constituent Assembly until January 1953. Mr. GM Syed from Sindh strongly opposed it as the leader of the opposition in the Sindh Assembly and also the Sindh Hari Committee also took a very strict stand on it. It should also be noted on the record that the Deputy President of the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan Muhammad Hashim Ghazdar also opposed the one unit formula. Actually, after the defeat of the Muslim League in Bengal and the alliance between Hussain Shaheed Suhrawardy’s Awami League and Fazal Haq’s Krishak Sarmak Party, the United Front won 233 seats out of 309 seats, both the Muslim League and Punjab had decided in their hearts that one Without the establishment of the unit, their illegitimate interests will not be fulfilled.

The fact is that the movement against one unit in Sindh had already started before its establishment. Comrade Hyder Bakhsh Jatoi took a very strong stand on this and interpreted it with Greater Punjab. Sindh Assembly members Pir Hasan Bakhsh, Sardar Ali Gohar, Ali Nawaz Dehraj, Ameer Bakhsh Mehr, Mir Sunder Khan Sundarani, Shafqat Hussain Mousavi, Abdul Hameed Jatoi, Syed Khair Shah and Mirullah Chachi issued a joint statement and rejected it. At that stage, the former interior minister of Sindh, Qazi Muhammad Akbar, also opposed it. On August 23, 1954, the All Parties Convention was held in Nawabshah, which was presided over by Advocate Ghulam Qadir. Fifteen thousand people participated in this convention, out of which about ten thousand were farmers. The son of Qazi Faiz Muhammad, a pauper of Sindh, had an important role in it. A committee named “Security of Sindh” was also formed in this convention. Meanwhile, the supporters of One Unit were not silent and finally on September 3, 1954, a regular meeting was held for One Unit, in which 32 out of 56 members of the House participated. The contradiction between Sindh and Punjab about the one unit became more clear when Punjab Malik Feroze Khan Noon strongly supported it and the then Chief Minister of Sindh Pirzadi Abdul Sattar strongly opposed it. The justification for this was that due to the specific conditions of the country, the model of zonal federalism would be formed in Pakistan (while zonal federalism had nothing to do with the concept of one unit. Belgium still has a system of zonal federalism today. 1940s Lahore The resolution can also be called zonal federalism) Pirzadi Abdul Sattar, Khan Qayyum Khan of Sarhad and Bengalis strongly opposed in the meeting. “Karachi Sindhi Committee” held a meeting on November 3, 1954 and opposed it and praised the role of Pirzadi Abdul Sattar, while Pirzadi Abdul Sattar made an emergency visit to the whole of Sindh and tried to mobilize the people. Seeing the strong opposition of Sindh, the then Governor General Ghulam Muhammad brought Pir Ali Muhammad Rashidi from Sindh with him and put the burden on him to create favorable conditions for him in Sindh, who was not only an intelligent politician and intellectual but also Muhammad Ayub. It was also very close. As a result, on November 18, 1954, Pir Ali Mohammad Rashidi supported the plan through a press conference and the government made it clear that the government will deal with the opposition. One of the tragedies of history is that the Punjab ruling class gave the responsibility of implementing unity to a dummy prime minister, Muhammad Ali Bogra, who was a Bengali. On November 22, Bogra came to Sindh and convened a meeting of politicians of Sindh and urged them to support One Unit. After that meeting, Sindh rose up and as a result, Sindh’s national voice newspaper Al Wahid was closed. In the same meeting Bogra announced about the implementation of one unit. It is a tragedy of history that Khairpur was the first state to support it, followed by Bahawalpur state. Finally, a conspiracy was prepared by the Sindh Assembly to pass a resolution in favor of One Unit and a plan was prepared to remove Pirzadi Abdul Sattar, who was opposed to One Unit, and replace him with Muhammad Ayub Khari as the Chief Minister of Sindh. It should be remembered that Ayub Khari was declared ineligible for four years under “Paruda” because he opposed the separation of Karachi from Sindh. Muhammad Ali Bogra became the prime minister and this was the reason why Nazimuddin’s government was dismissed and a Bengali Muhammad Ali Bogra was made the prime minister of the country, because the ruling class of Punjab wanted to take this job from a Bengali. Wanted, because it mainly went to the small provinces of West Pakistan as well as the majority democratic right of Bengal. At that time, Governor General Ghulam Muhammad was sitting like the owner of the country. Ayub Khari was offered that if he becomes the chief minister and passes a resolution/bill in support of one unit, he will be appointed as a minister in the central cabinet after the establishment of one unit. Ayub Khoro was not even a member of the Sindh Assembly at that time, he was elected unopposed from the Tandi Adam-Shahdadpur seat. It should be remembered that Qazi Faiz Muhammad, Rao Fateh Muhammad, Arif Ali Shah and Dr. Majeed Nizami wanted to oppose him, but their vehicles were stopped 2 miles away while submitting the form. The time was up and Ayub Khoro was elected unopposed as the member of Sindh and then the Chief Minister. This whole strategy was of a brilliant mind Pir Ali Muhammad Rashidi. On December 11, 1954, a resolution was presented in the Sindh Assembly in support of one unit, which was presented by Pir Ali Muhammad Rashidi. How this resolution was presented and how it was passed is also a great tragedy of history. First of all, the meeting was held in the durbar hall of the court in Hyderabad instead of Karachi, and those members, whom Khari and Rashidi were sure would oppose, were not allowed to enter the durbar hall but the court premises. . They took Mir Ghulam Ali Talpar to Umarkot on the condition that he get down from the car, from where he was put on a camel and detained in Mithi. Cases were established against members who were likely to oppose one unit, and finally 11th December 1954 proved to be a black day in the modern history of Sindh. The resolution was passed against political, national and geographical existence and in support of one unit. Out of the 110 members of the Sindh Assembly, 8 members were absent or detained, 98 members voted in favor of it and four members voted against it. These four members were Abdul Hameed Khan Jatoi, Ghulam Mustafa Khan Bhargari, Pir Elahi Bakhsh and Sheikh Khurshid Ahmed, while Mr. GM Syed was already detained. However, the attack on the existence of Sindh came from its guardian Constituent Assembly. The center was originally from Sindh, so as soon as the bill was passed from Sindh, it was announced on December 14, 1954 that the establishment of one unit would be implemented next year, and finally one unit was practically implemented from October 14, 1954. In West Pakistan, Mushtaq Gormani was appointed as the new governor and Dr. Khan as the chief minister. The reasons for appointing Dr. Khan as the Chief Minister of West Pakistan were strategic, because one was that Jinnah Sahib dismissed the condition of Dr. Khan’s government to become a country, the other was to satisfy the ruling class and establishment Pashtuns and the third important The reason is that since West Pakistan practically meant Greater Punjab, by appointing a Pashtun leader as the Chief Minister, an attempt was made to give the impression that Punjab does not have the power in West Pakistan. It was the strong struggle of Sindhi writers, intellectuals, poets and national workers, as a result of which national consciousness was created among the youth of Sindh, the Fourth March struggle came to the fore and the foundations of strong student politics were laid in Sindh. Hundreds of student leaders including Yusuf Leghari, Yusuf Talpar, Lala Qadir, Iqbal Tareen are the product of this struggle. In fact, the multi-faceted struggle against the One Unit trained the Sindhi society and the process of national consciousness and national resistance and movement accelerated in Sindh, but unfortunately, this national consciousness of Sindh could not take the form of an extraordinary political organization. . Although many national and progressive organizations were formed in Sindh after this struggle, they remained workers’ organizations. They could not take the form of large public national or revolutionary organizations and now, after four decades, all the traditions that arose during the struggle for unity look weak. Although there are thousand times more difficult conditions in Sindh today than during the period of unity, but today Sindh does not see the required strong role of writers, intellectuals, national workers or political parties claiming national politics. Even today, on July 1, 1970, under the announcement of Yahya Khan, the unit was disbanded, and it was not possible for the ruling class to continue it. Today, apparently, there is no single unit, but the non-federal mentality and illegitimate interests that made the unit exist today, and the system of looting the oppressed nations and provinces other than Punjab is still the same today. is the. Therefore, now we have to be proud of the struggle against one unit and also think for the future of Sindh and determine our national role.