B.RAMAN
( To be read in continuation of my article of June
7,2012, titled ZARDARI IN CHINA: FOCUS ON SINDH
available at http://ramanstrategicanalysis.blogspot.in/2012/06/zardari-in-china-focus-on-sindh.html
)
President Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan was in
Beijing from June 5 to 7,2012, to attend the summit of the Shanghai
Co-operation Organisation (SCO) of which Pakistan, like India, Iran and
Afghanistan, is an observer.
2.During Zardari’s stay in Beijing, officials of
the two countries signed three memoranda
of understanding (MoUs) covering supply of water from Tarbela to Islamabad, the
establishment of a Special Economic Zone in the proposed new city Zulfikarabad
in Sindh and the building there of 6,000 flats
on private-public partnership basis. They also signed an agreement for Chinese assistance in
the de-silting of canals and barrages in
the Sindh province.
3. After Mr.Zardari’s return from
China, it was reported that he has
directed the Sindh Government to identify amillion acres (4,000 km²) of land near the coast in
Thatta district for the development of the proposed new city, in memory of the late Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali
Bhutto. The proposed location of the city would be near Jherek in Thatta
district.
4. It was also reported that Mr.Zardari sought
Chinese assistance to make Zulfikarabad into a major special economic zone
patterned after Shenzhen in southern China’s Guangdong province where China’s
first SEZ was set up and where the Chinese economic miracle started.
5. Reports about Mr.Zardari’s plans to create, with
Chinese assistance, a Pakistani Shenzhen in the Thatta area of Sindh have
caused serious concerns among sections of the Sindhi nationalists, who fear
that the Chinese-aided project might result in the eviction of the Sindhi
peasants from the area and the ingress of a large number of Punjabi businessmen
and ex-servicemen into the area to make the city a Punjabi Shenzhen in the
heart of Sindh.
6.The protesting Sindhi nationalists claim that the
Chinese-aided construction of the Gwadar port in Balochistan resulted in the
ingress of a large number of Punjabi businessmen and construction companies
into the area, transforming Gwadar, which was essentially a Baloch fishing
village, into a Punjabi colony in the heart of Balochistan.
7. Many Sindhis fear that a similar fate might
befall Thatta and that the Punjabis would be the ultimate beneficiaries of the
project. Mr.Zardari’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), which strongly supports
the project, has undertaken a campaign to educate the Sindhis that the project
would benefit Sindh and the Sindhis and that the fears voiced by the Sindhi
nationalists were baseless. The inauguration of the construction of the
project, originally due in the last week of June, has reportedly been postponed
for giving time to address the concerns of the Sindhi nationalists.
8. In their campaign to remove the
fears of the Sindhi nationalists, PPP leaders have been saying that the
proposed SEZ would have
a special regulatory regime to ensure that the locals have the priority over jobs and other
opportunities, that the inflow of people from other parts of the country is
controlled by introducing work permits
and that land could only be leased with ownership remaining
with the locals.
9.PPP leaders have also been promising that as part
of the Chinese-aided project, the road, rail and port (Keti Bunder)
infrastructure in the area will be upgraded and a number of technical and
vocational training institutions will be started to train Sindhis to take up
jobs in the SEZ and to start their own small and medium scale industries
10. Despite this, Sindhi nationalist parties such
as the Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM) have
started a protest movement against the project. On July
12,2012, the JSQM took out a protest rally against the proposed project in
Karachi. JSQM leaders had planned to march to the Chinese Consulate-General in
Karachi to hold a demonstration, but the police prevented them from going
there.
11. The protesters then staged a sit-in on the National Highway and
destroyed over 1000 SIM cards of their
Chinese mobile sets. Dr.Niaz Kalani, the acting Chairman of the JSQM, who led
the protest rally, announced that more protest rallies and sit-in
demonstrations against the Chinese Government would be held from July 18.An
appeal was issued to the Sindhis to boycott Chinese goods and a Chinese cell
phone service provider. Among other JSQM leaders who participated in the
protest were Mr.Asif Baladi, Mr.Sagar Hanif Burrdi,Mr. Sarfraz Memon and Mr. Maqsood
Qureshi. ( 15-7-12)
( The writer is Additional Secretary (retd),
Cabinet Secretariat, Govt of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director,
Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai, and Associate, Chennai Centre For China
Studies. E-Mail: seventyone2@gmail.com . Twitter: @SORBONNE75 )
