Nationalists oppose Swat affectees influx

KARACHI - The nationalist forces of Sindh have joined hands in opposing the large-scale migration to province of the people from Swat and Malakand. Nationalist leaders fear that large number of extremists and terrorists will enter the province in the guise of displaced persons from Swat and Malakand. Chairman Jeay Sindh Mahaz, Abdul Khalique Junejo, has strongly condemned announcement of Sindh Chief Minister allowing displaced persons to enter the province. People of Sindh did not vote the present government into power to sell out their basic rights, he said while talking to The Nation here on Wednesday. He said that demographic situation of Sindh was worse than other parts of the country due to prevailing ethnic and sectarian strife and deteriorating law and order situation thanks to the influx migrants from different areas of Pakistan. It was totally wrong to interpret the traditional generosity and hospitality of the people of Sindh to allow migration of displaced people into the province, he said. Junejo added that people of Sindh have serious reservations on the entry of people from other provinces. There was no need of more influx of people into the province whose resources have been stretched to the breaking point, he continued. He argued the situation due to influx of people from Swat and Malakand would make the situation more tenuous and precarious for locals. Responding to a query, Abdul Khalique Junejo said the people, who had left their home and hearth voluntarily in Swat and Malakand, should be accommodated in the settled areas of NWFP and Islamabad where they would feel more at home because of their closeness to their native towns. He termed the Sindh governments claim regarding registration of the migrants as absurd. He added it was misleading idea because no person entering Sindh was ever registered nor he left the province. He claimed that thousands of people from Swat and Malakand had reached Tando Adam, Mirpurkhas, Umerkot and other areas of the province without any registration. Replying to another query, Abdul Khalique Junejo said that history was witness to fact that not a single migrant living in Sindh had retuned back therefore the IDPs would also settle here for good. He said that relief camps should be set up in Islamabad and other adjoining areas because it was the Centre that started this war in the first place and not the Sindh. As for as Sindh government is concerned, it ought to establish camps in the settled areas of NWFP and extend helping hand and provide relief goods to the displaced persons on humanitarian grounds, Junejo demanded. Meanwhile, leaders of Sindhi Shagrid Tehreek Thatta including Razzaque Chandio and others, Jeay Sindh National Party Chairman Agha Shamshad Mughal, Sindhi Adabi Sangat general secretary Yousuf Sindhi and Chairman World Sindhi Congress Dr. Haleem Bhatti have also expressed serious reservations over the entry of displaced persons into Sindh. They termed the decision of Sindh government, to allow the entry of displaced into Sindh, against the will of local people. Some nationalist parties have announced to launch movement against the influx of people from Swat and Malakand.

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