Moguls of Lahore and Martyrs of Larkana 

Larkana and Lahore are two cities of the same country but with different reception from the centre. The former is the political epicentre of the Pakistan Peoples Party while the latter is of the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz). Both cities have given birth to national leaderships but still there is a sense of partisanship when the question is raised as to how the leaders from these respective cities have been treated differently in the past decades.

If we turn back the pages of history to the 1970s then we learn how a visionary, iconic and national leader, Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was treated, giving a sense of deprivation to the people of the province he belonged to. Unlike today’s self-proclaimed revolutionary enjoying the pleasant weather of London despite being convicted.

The blue-eyed leadership from Lahore often gets an easy exit with mild punishments but nothing of such soft attitude is seen for the leadership of Larkana. The Daughter of the East was kept under arrest for three years and confined in Sukkur Jail without electricity and other basic necessities. Both Bhutto and Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto had huge followings and were recipients of emotional attachment across the country and were known as symbols of federation, but unfortunately the biased treatment they received has been heart-wrenching for their voters and supporters.

On 7 August 1990 former Prime Minister Shaheed Benazir Bhutto’s Nationl Assembly was dissolved and later her petition for nullifying the dissolution of the National Assembly was rejected, but there was a different course of action for former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif when the then President’s decision to dissolve the Assembly was set aside and his government was restored by the courts.

It’s not only the unjust treatment of the leaders from smaller provinces, but the unfair distribution of resources is also a big reason why today Pakistan is facing such challenges. It’s high time to treat all the provinces and their leaders equally and fairly. Just giving ceremonial positions to smaller provinces will not serve the purpose. If there is a sense of deprivation in the province which provided leaders of international stature, then definitely somewhere something is wrong and must be reviewed and corrected, so that the country may prosper and people from every corner may flourish.

Article 58-2(b) was used by President Ishaq Khan for both the Prime Ministers at different times but ironically there were two opposite decisions by the apex court; declining the petition of Benazir Bhutto and giving relief to Nawaz Sharif, making it evident how much the domicile matters.

The convicted former Prime Minister from Lahore was recently allowed to travel abroad on medical grounds, and earlier he struck a 10 year deal with the then dictator and fled away. While the former Prime Minister from Larkana was hanged and today his party is facing the same discrimination, with former President Asif Zardari is being persecuted despite his health issues. He was continuously summoned by NAB in Islamabad for two years, was kept in prison and was not even provided a fridge to keep his insulin. Even his sister was arrested the night before Eid from the hospital where she was being treated, while a prominent leader of PPP Khursheed Shah is still behind bars without any conviction for the past two years while Shahid Khaqan visited the USA despite having his name on the ECL.

Moreover, Sindh is facing an unprecedented water shortage. This may result in a severe drought and dip in agricultural yield, ultimately creating a negative impact on the country’s economy while leaving the peasants in a deplorable condition. Such is the alarming situation of water in the province that relies mostly on agro-economy and in the midst of this crisis it was witnessed that the behavior of the Chairman IRSA towards the Sindh Member was distasteful and arrogant.

The right to receive due water share for the province which is geographically situated on the tail remains protected without any hassle, this is an international norm followed by many countries. It is the duty of the federal government to take notice of such grievances of smaller provinces and avoid political vendetta as the ultimate sufferers are poor farmers.

Today when we see a controlled democracy in Pakistan where the weak Prime Minister who is leaving no chance to curb the resources of smaller provinces like creating water crisis for Sindh, reducing the number of development schemes and ignoring the elected CM Murad Ali Shah who by far has proved himself much more efficient and competent than the other three chief ministerssince day one in all regards, while on the other hand the PM visits Lahore every other week just to spoon feed the inept CM, Usman Buzdar. This biased, egoistic and rude behaviour of the PM is not in any way giving a good message to the people of Sindh who are facing his wrath just because they rejected him in the 2018 general elections. This careless attitude and vengeance of the Prime Minister from Lahore for the people of Larkana is unfortunate.

It’s not only the unjust treatment of the leaders from smaller provinces, but the unfair distribution of resources is also a big reason why today Pakistan is facing such challenges. It’s high time to treat all the provinces and their leaders equally and fairly. Just giving ceremonial positions to smaller provinces will not serve the purpose. If there is a sense of deprivation in the province which provided leaders of international stature, then definitely somewhere something is wrong and must be reviewed and corrected, so that the country may prosper and people from every corner may flourish.