PA resolution expresses solidarity with oppressed Kashmiris

The Sindh Assembly on Monday unanimously passed a resolution to express solidarity with the oppressed Kashmiri brethren in the occupied Kashmir.

The resolution was moved in the house by Sindh Senior Information Sharjeel Inam Memon, a day after the anniversary was observed of the day when Indian forces entered occupied Kashmir to usurp it on October 27, 1947.

Speaking on his resolution, the senior minister said the Indian government had been continuously committing atrocities in the occupied Kashmir for a long time. He said the fundamental rights of the oppressed Kashmiri brethren had been denied for a long time. Memon lamented that innocent Kashmiri youths were martyred daily and enforced disappearances continued unabated in the occupied territory.

Memon maintained that such atrocities committed against the oppressed Kashmiris were not at all acceptable to Pakistan. He informed the house that October 27 was commemorated every year as the day to express solidarity with the oppressed people of Kashmir. He appealed to the MPAs to unanimously pass the resolution to show their fullest support to their Kashmiri brethren.

Jamaat-e-Islami MPA Muhammad Farooq was of the view that good neighbourly ties couldn’t be established between India and Pakistan till the resolution of the Kashmir problem. He condemned the indifference shown by the United Nations, which had failed to resolve the Kashmir issue. He said the UN’s resolutions on the Kashmir dispute were yet to be acted upon.

Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan lawmaker Sabir Qaimkhani recalled that India had occupied Kashmir against the will of the overwhelming Muslim majority of the region. Meanwhile, Sharjeel Memon, who also holds the portfolio of Excise & Narcotics Control Department, told the house that the provincial government or any minister alone couldn’t get rid of the menace of drugs from society, and every concerned quarter has to lend support in this regard.

He stated this while responding to a call-attention notice moved by MQM lawmaker Jamal Ahmed on the alarming increase in drug use in society. The senior mninister assured the house that the provincial government had been doing its best to get rid of the drug problem. He said Sindh had become the first province in the country to pass a new anti-narcotics law. He said the government had been working day and night to accelerate its drive against narcotics.

Memon told the house that the government had established complaint centres for the purpose whose contact phone numbers had been publicised. “I alone cannot overcome the drug menace and a collective effort is required for the purpose,” he said, adding that the use of new forms of synthetic drugs alarmingly increased in society.

He said the Sindh government had to establish a centre for the rehabilitation of drug addicts in every district and town in Sindh. He said that 400 drug addicts were being rehabilitated at the rehabilitation centre jointly being run by the Sindh government and the Anti-Narcotics Force.

Sindh Culture and Tourism Minister Syed Zulfiqar Ali Shah presented the traditional Sindhi cap and Ajrak to the Leader of Opposition, Ali Khurshidi, who belongs to the MQM, during the question hour, to promote fraternal sentiments in the house.

He recalled that in the house once an MQM fellow had cautioned that anyone wearing a Sindhi cap shouldn’t dare cross Karachi’s Toll Plaza. He said that uttering such statements based on hatred was sorrowful. “We should unite everyone instead of spreading hatred,” he said.

Shah said a Sindhi cap would be given to every member of the house when Sindhi Culture Day would soon be celebrated. Meanwhile, responding to queries from concerned legislators, the culture minister told the house that there were 741 protected heritage buildings in Karachi while there were 144 structures in Hyderabad declared heritage sites.

He said the Makli Necropolis and Mohenjo Daro were two Unesco-recognised world heritage sites in Sindh. He assured the concerned legislators that the historical site of the Chowkandi graveyard in Karachi was protected against encroachments.