Mohajir should not be threatened over the issue of new provinces. Altaf Hussain
A few days ago, Federal Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, in his speech, while declaring Pakistan’s system corrupt, proposed the creation of new provinces and administrative units in the country, which is currently being debated nationwide. Some say that 20 provinces should be created in Pakistan, others say 33 provinces should be created. On this matter, President Asif Zardari remains silent, but people at the grassroots level of the People’s Party and some nationalists in Sindh have started issuing indirect or direct threats to the migrants, saying that if Sindh is divided, rivers of blood will flow in Sindh. I ask those issuing threats: whom will they kill? Whose rivers of blood will they make flow? What have they taken the migrants for in the end? Neither MQM nor Altaf Hussain raised the issue of provinces; it was Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi who did so, and today Bilawal Zardari, in his speech in Kashmir, has expressed support for provinces by saying that if the majority of the people want new provinces, we will also support them. It’s justified if Bilawal supports the creation of provinces, but if Altaf Hussain supports it, he is labeled an enemy of Sindh—what kind of double standard is this? Why haven’t these nationalists who threaten mohajir raised their voices against Bilawal for supporting provinces? Why haven’t they spoken out against Asif Zardari, who remains silent on this issue? Why don’t they tell Bilawal to lead a procession in Islamabad against the creation of provinces? Why is baseless hatred being spread against migrants? Why are they being threatened? I have been observing this hatred against MQM and migrants for the past several days; some biased anchors are spreading unjustified hatred against migrants in their programs—perhaps they have been signaled by Zardari Sahib to get started, because they must know what’s coming next. Now, using the creation of provinces as an excuse, some nationalists are threatening migrants.
I warn that if anyone thinks they can cut the migrants and flow their blood in the Indus River instead of water, they should remember that those whose blood will be shed also have two hands; they too have eyes. So why talk of bloodshed? Stop abusing migrants without reason and issuing them threats. Migrants have become so strong from enduring beatings that they can stop the hands of those beating them; therefore, don’t talk of killing and bloodshed. Whatever you have to say, say it to the government; say it to those bringing in this new system. Field Marshal Asim Munir and Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi should take notice of the indirect or direct threats being issued to migrants.
You people say that no province should be created on a linguistic basis. I ask them: out of Pakistan’s four provinces, which one’s name is not based on language? What is Sindh, Punjab, Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa? Isn’t Sindh for Sindhis, Punjab for Punjabis, Balochistan for Baloch, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for Pashtuns? The name of the Pashtunkhwa province was previously North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), i.e., North West Frontier Province. The Pashtuns demanded that it be named Pashtunistan; their demand was justified, therefore today the province is called Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Due to hatred and prejudice, it is said that migrants are not a nation. I ask: at the time of Pakistan’s creation in 1947, those migrants who came from UP, CP, Bihar, Aligarh, Hyderabad Deccan, Rajasthan, Gujarat, or other regions of India to Pakistan— was their mother tongue Sindhi, Punjabi, Balochi, or Pashto? Wasn’t their mother tongue Urdu? If someone says Urdu is the national language, then it wasn’t Altaf Hussain or MQM who made Urdu the national language; you may remove Urdu as the national language, but you cannot strip us of our language, our identity. Don’t forget that UP, CP, Bihar, Aligarh, Hyderabad Deccan, Rajasthan, Gujarat—the places where the Pakistan Movement was run but Pakistan wasn’t created—sacrificed 2 million lives for the creation of Pakistan. When they came here, sacrificing everything for Pakistan’s sake, they weren’t robots but living, breathing humans; they brought their language, their civilization, their culture with them. When they migrated, it wasn’t just a migration of empty bodies; it was a migration of attire, a migration of language, a migration of civilization and culture. If the people currently living in present-day Pakistan have a 5,000-year-old civilization, then those who migrated from India also have a civilization more than 5,000 years old. They are settled in Sindh today, so they cannot be separated from their language, their civilization, and their culture.
