Sindh United Party

SUP Manifesto

INTRODUCTION

Declaring the India Act of 1935 as centralist, the Muslim majority states of United India, namely Bengal, Sindh, NWFP and Baluchistan had supported the Lahore Resolution of 1940 for its truly federalist commitment and joined Pakistan in the expectation and belief that they would enjoy autonomy and independence in the new federation of the Muslim Majority states. Their culture, language, resources and geography will be fully protected, which was clearly expressed/stated in the resolution moved by Sain G.M Sayed the leader of our party “Sindh United Party adopted by the Sindh Assembly (the first among all the state assemblies of United India to do so) on 3rd April 1943 in support of the Lahore Resolution but the formation of the country was a condition, on the contrary, the states of the Muslim majority territories were attacked by flagrant denying their separate historical, geographical, cultural identity and entities. First below came in the shape of forcible imposition of urdu and separation of Karachi by placing it under the Centre. The Immigrant Commission enacted discriminatory laws and Hindus were forced to migrate from India in large numbers. The political system of the country was destabilized by abolishing the elected governments of the provinces. Hindus were forcefully evicted by emigrating from India on a large scale by creating discriminatory laws by forming the Muhajir Commission. Their properties, lands, factories, houses and jobs were confiscated and handed over to immigrants and especially the population of Sindh was unbalanced. The political system of the country was destabilized by abolishing the elected governments of the provinces.

The sovereignty and the First Constituent Assembly of Pakistan was exercised through unrepresentative persons, who turned the soil of Pakistan into a theater of war between Capitalist and the communist Blocks by binding it in the SEATO and CENTO treaties as a pawn in their conspiracies for furtherance of their respective interests. Contrary to the secular concept of the constitution in Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s speech in the Constituent Assembly on August 11, 1947, the first prime minister of the Country Liaquat Ali Khan moved the objective resolution in the Constituent Assembly on 12th March 1949 and made it a substantive part of the resolution at the behest of the world powers, paved the way for more and more entrenchment and encouragement of the fundamentalist forces.

On the other hand, the idea of frontier-less “Muslim Ummah” was developed in order to deny the historical existence and identity of nations under the notion of strong center. At the same time, majority was kept under the thumb of minority by seizing political power and civil bureaucracy. ICS, the anti-people and corrupt legacy of colonialism, was invested with greater authority and foisted upon political institutions and politicians by the first prime minister of Pakistan who established a special cadre of central secretaries with Chaudhri Muhammad Ali at its head as secretary general, which led to making these secretaries answerable to him instead of political government (the cabinet). The chief secretaries and IGPs of the states never felt themselves accountable to the state governments as they were directly appointed by the center. Favorite junior army officers appointed were deliberately preferred over their seniors for promotions to higher ranks, as a result of which Ayub Khan became commander-in-chief of the army as well as heed of the combined armed forces. Thus, the evil of direct participation of the civil and military bureaucracies in political decisions became a norm.

Some sincere, honest, wise, full of spirit of self-sacrifice politicians of the Muslim majority areas like Sain G.M Sayed, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, Abdul Samad Achakzai, Husain Shaheed Suharwardi, Mian Iftikharuddin, who had suffered a lot in the fight of freedom from the British rule were soon after the establishment of the country, constantly kept behind the bards and hounded illegally and without any justification by the usurpers of power for raising their voice against the obliteration of their nations separate identities the measures to impose foreign languages upon the native language the denial of provincial autonomy aligning religion with politics in governance patronizing favourite and corrupt politicians and establishment at the cost of the welfare of the provinces, infringement of democratic values, unlawful and unconstitutional actions, and disrespect for the rule of law.

Yet another action against national entities for the obliteration of their separate identities was an enforcement of the one-unit scheme in 1955, when their geographical boundaries were done away with under this chicaner of one unit, the multinational state of Pakistan was turned into an unnatural unitary state with two wings, eastern and western to continue and protect with direct martial law was imposed in 1958. After 15 years anti-One unit struggle by the people, this unnatural scheme came to its logical end in 1969, when General Yahiya Khan annulled it with the words that the system of One Unit had weakened the integrity of Pakistan. Thereafter, general elections for a constituent assembly were held in 1970. Non-acceptance of the majority mandate that had emerged from these elections resulted in massive protest movement in the eastern wing. Army was moved in to crush the movement, which led to civil war and emergence of that wing as Bangladesh.

What the federation of remaining Pakistan needed in view of its multinational character was a new social contract. Instead, a new constitution was framed in 1972 and 1973 to legalize the system of one unit by rejuvenating the system of strong center through controlled democracy, wherein the democracy was equated with numerical majority instead of equality parliament was kept away from home and foreign affairs, armed forces were strengthened; national democratic parties like NAP were banned, provinces were subjected to military operations after dismissing their governments, and workers of the National Political Parties imprisoned and harassed for long periods in the name of Defense of Pakistan rules. The new constitution of the Country, while recognizing the geographies of historical nations, manifestly denied their ancient languages making states into provinces and their powers, natural resources, taxes and financial system was controlled by a legal hold of a strong center making it more centralized by the Act of 1935 and brought into permanent legal custody.

Today Pakistan is nominally a country of federal constitution but in actually it is a peculiar specimen of unitary form of governance in which the national entities/provinces are totally powerless and helpless. All their natural resources, administrative authority and most of legislative powers are hostage to the centralized system. Wealthy persons of rich national entities are considered poor. People are held tight in the snare of hunger, joblessness, poverty and lawlessness because their natural resources and financial means are not being used for their wellbeing. Since declaration of historical homelands of national entities as administrative provinces from the very inception of country, attempts are continuing to transmute permanently. The right to rule of Sindh and Baluchistan in particular through settlement of outsiders and forged show of settler’s minority as majority. Ceaseless attempts are foot to upset the balance of population by occupying the coastline of the provinces. Sindh, the day Pakistan came into being the vested interested group seized the country’s centre and through it, the provinces’ sovereignty and rapidly increased its share in power and benefits through this specific local government system to take the districts and cities. In the name of the Devolution plan by introducing the technique of grabbing the provincial government’s authority at the divisional level was replaced with the district and city governments, which on the one hand, challenged the administrative authority of the provinces and, on the other hand by increased direct contact with the centre justifying the centre to interfere in the provisional affairs. In the name of enhancing the administrative powers of the districts, it has indirectly opened the way of administratively dividing the provinces.   

The country’s experiment with aligning religion and politics in governance has strengthened the people of particular mindsets so that they may deem it right to impose their own beliefs and concepts upon other people of different ideas and concepts. This has led to extreme religious, faiths and political schisms, anarchy, terrorism, disorder and crises in the country.

  • Looking at the country’s political, economic and administrative deterioration, questions like these arise in people’s minds.
  • What would become of us?
  • What should we do to preserve historical nations in this country beset with many-sided dangers and challenges?
  • Are the seemingly federalist but, in reality, centralist and religious parties, being products of controlled democracy, conscious of this perilous future and have the will and ability to fact it?
  • Can the rights and interests of national entities in the country be secured through the party programs of the political organisations, being supporters of constitutional subjection in the name of numerical-majority-based democracy?
  • Can the fundamentalist religious parties, who have always been trying to run affairs of the state and religion together, solve our problems and should we give up our nationalist orientation to follow them?
  • Should we leave everything to the parties, who represent the vested interest group with an unlawful hold on power since the birth of the country or who operate by its agenda and who change their colours with time so they may continue to keep the historical nations subservient through the appropriation of their resources and rights and to have like always the majority under the thumb of a minority with the help of incorrect statistics?

 

Today, the country’s 75 years of history and experience make it abundantly clear that it is a multinational federal state consisting of different historical nations having their separate historical homelands, which the natural and historical process can make one for securing their respective cultural, economic and political interests.  To achieve this, they must have complete autonomy and impendence within their historical homelands. The subject of defence, currency, foreign policy, foreign trade and some lines of communication should be handled by the federation, and all the rest should handover to the provinces; to run them, financial resources should be provided to the areas according to the share in the centre. The Country should have an accurate Federal Parliamentary system in which parliament alone is competent to frame home affairs and foreign policies. The upper house of the Parliament (Senate) should have the power to pass the budget and select the provincial governors.

There should be such a system in Pakistan where religion and politics should be treated separately. To strengthen the real federation by recognising the country as a multinational country, the powers and resources should be handed over to the federating units (provinces) by making them autonomous. Disputed issues should be resolved through dialogue. The defence budget should be spent on public betterment and development by creating an atmosphere of peace and brotherhood. In this way, we will be able to deal with fundamentalism, extremism, religious fanaticism, terrorism, and economic, political and cultural problems and make Pakistan a viable democratic state. In this way, the international achievement of human unity, world peace and the development of humanity will be possible.

Sayed Jalal Mehmood Shah

President

Sindh United Party

PART I

INTRODUCTION, FOUNDATION, LEADERSHIP AND MEMBERSHIP OF THE PARTY

  • NAME OF THE PARTY: The name of p[arty will be “Sindh United Party”, and the abbreviation will be (S.U.P)
  • PARTY FLAG: The party’s flag shall be a rectangle with white and red colours on its ground. The white portion shall be on the flag pole and the red on the fly-end side. The white and red colours shall be in 33.5 and 66.5 proportions, respectively.
  • THEME OF FLAG COLORS: The white colour represents Peace and Unity, while the red one is a symbol of economic progress, industrial, agricultural, educational and democratic revolution.
  • CENTRAL OFFICE: The Party’s Central Office shall be located in Karachi, the Capital of Sindh.
  • FOUNDATION DAY: Sindh United Party was founded on December 09, 2006, at Jamshoro.
  • FOUNDER: Sayed Jalal Mehmood Shah is the founding President of SUP, who formed a national democratic party with a democratic and participatory concept giving nationalist politics a new direction of ‘national democratic politics’ for achieving the federal rights of the historic nationalities, namely Sindh, Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan in the federation of Pakistan.
  • PARTY MEMBERSHIP:
  1. Terms of the Membership
  2. They shall be a citizen of Pakistan.
  3. Their age should be 18 years or above.
  • They should be of sound mental health.
  1. Any court of law should not convict them for any ethical/moral crime.
  2. They should not have a criminal background but be considered good people.
  3. They should not be a member of any other political party.
  • Any person (male or female) fulfilling the above conditions shall undertake to abide by the constitution, manifesto and rules of the Sindh United Party by paying the membership fee of Rs.10 and signing the basic membership form can be considered as the primary of the party.
  1. Duties and powers of the member
    1. The primary member/member of the party has the right to be elected or appointed to any position from the ward of the concerned limits to the Centre.
    2. Will play a role in creating awareness of the party’s manifesto and political, social and national issues.
  • Will be bound to follow and abide by every decision of the party and carry out the assigned work responsibly.
  1. Basic members shall pay a party membership fee of Rs.100 every other year
  2. Shall pay the party prescribed fee on time.
  3. Shall be bound to pay the party funds
  • Shall be bound to attend the meeting at the concerned level.
    • PARTY STRUCTURE:
  1. Ward
  2. Ward body
  • Union Council / Union Committee / Town Council / Municipal Council
  1. Union Council Body/ Union Committee Body/ Town Body/ Municipal Body
  2. Taluka Council/Municipal Corporation Council
  3. Taluka Body/Municipal Corporation Body
  • District Council
  • District Body
  1. Divisional Council
  2. Division Body
  3. Central Executive Body
  • Central Executive Committee
  • Central Committee
  • General Council.

PART II

SHORT POLITICAL INTRODUCTION OF SINDH UNITED PARTY (S.U.P)

  1. PARTY IDENTITY

 

Sindh United Party is a national democratic party of the country that considers Pakistan a Federation/State/multinational country consisting of historical nations and their motherlands.

  1. CHANGE THROUGH POLITICS

 

Sindh United Party considers politics a skill to run the affairs of the state and an effective way of social service, and this goal could be achieved through the principles of sharing opinions and participating in the political democratic process at every level; better use of political power and authority; economic and social change in the country could be made possible through the politics.

  1. PARTY’S SOURCE OF STRENGTH

 

Sindh United Party is a force and multi-class party representing the patriotic, progressive, liberal and secular men and women, peasants, landholders, growers, laborers, workers, industrialists, national investors, professionals, engineers, contractors, doctors, fishermen, traders, lawyers, intellectuals, writers, journalists, artists, office workers, teachers and students etc. and considers ideology, wisdom, character, justice and peace-loving and courage as a great source of achieving its goals.

  1. PARTY’S IDEOLOGICAL BASE FOR ESTABLISHING A SYSTEM

 

The party will end national slavery, class and social discrimination, conservatism, ethnicity, gender inequality, sectarianism, dictatorship, and all kinds of exploitation so that a society based on justice and a system of Federal National Democratic state should be established.

  1. ACHIEVEMENT THROUGH NATIONAL, DEMOCRATIC AND STATE INSTITUTIONS

 

The SUP believes in a democracy based on parity of the historical nations, the rule of law, freedom of expression, an independent judiciary, sovereign parliament and the principle of equality of citizens and the countries, and the party shall strive for the attainment of political objectives by observing these principles.

  1. SOCIAL JUSTICE, RIGHTS & DUTIES AND ESTABLISHMENT OF ACCOUNTABLE GOVERNMENT

 

The party will establish social justice by alleviating poverty, social discrimination and illiteracy by distributing the country’s resources and powers. It will develop a link between an accountable State/Government and the dutiful citizen by balancing citizens’ fundamental rights and duties. It will also raise the standards of life of individuals in the collective society and take measures for their material and spiritual progress.

  1. POLITICAL STRATEGY

 

  1. The SUP shall maintain its separate political identity through continuous participation, sharing, role and struggle in the country’s affairs.
  2. The party shall formulate its policies and devise strategies when required in the light of its basic ideological foundations keeping in view the ground realities, practical requirements and objective conditions.
  3. The party shall bring about social change by seeking political power, authority, positive thinking, and good governance.
  4. Sindh United Party shall be a Reformist in its political ideology and role that firmly believes in the philosophy of non-violence.
  5. The SUP will attain national objectives by participating in the democratic process and applying all the modern-day democratic means of struggle.
  1. ALLIANCE WITH OTHER POLITICAL PARTIES

 

  1. Sindh United Party will consider all such politics as its ally and friend, which recognize the historic national units of the country and their national sovereignty/entity.
  2. All those political parties that hold national interests supreme to their personal and party goods.
  3. The parties believe in keeping state and political affairs from religion and faith.
  4. The parties believe in the principles of tolerance and peaceful co-existence.
  5. The parties that are honest from the core of their heart are opposed to corruption and are desirous of bringing real change to the country through better character and deeds.
  6. The parties believe in resolving the issues through political dialogue at all levels of politics.
  7. The parties desire to run the affairs of the country through justice.

PART III

S.U.P strivers for the real Federation and the viable State of Pakistan.

Sindh united party is striving for the New Social Contract in which National Autonomy(Provincial Autonomy) is guaranteed to make the Federation of Pakistan a viable state. Our vision is reflected in the following points:

  1. Pakistan is a multi-nation state. The Federating units(Provinces) are ‘Historic Nations’ known as Sindh, Punjab, Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa and Baluchistan, and they shall be regarded as National Units, not Administrative Units.
  2. All Federating units (Provinces) shall be equal and autonomous.
  • The Federation of Pakistan shall be called the United States of Pakistan.
  1. Pakistan will be a “Democratic Republic” instead of an “Islamic Republic”.
  2. Only the Federating units (Provinces) shall have representation in the senate of Pakistan.
  3. The members of the Senate should be elected through a popular vote of the Federating units (Provinces).
  • The Governors of the Federating units (Provinces) shall be elected jointly by the members of the Senate, National Assembly and Provincial Assembly of the respective Federating team (Province) for the particular tenure. Instead of being nominated by the Federal Government for an unknown period.
  • The Federation (Federal Govt.) shall have three portfolios of Defense, Foreign Affairs and Currency, and all other subjects shall be with Federating units (Provinces).
  1. All natural resources (including oil, gas & coal) shall be considered property of the concerned Federating unit (Province).
  2. NFC shall be abolished. All Federating units (Provinces) shall be autonomous in financial matters, and Federating units (Provinces) shall bear the Federal government’s expenditure according to their representation in the federation.
  3. The Federating units (Provinces) shall have the right to keep their militia (Para-military force) for their internal security.
  • The Federating units (Provinces) shall have the right to enter international trade and monetary contracts with the federal government’s permission.
  • There shall be an equal representation of all Federating units (Provinces) in the National Army.
  • The appointments of Services Chiefs, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, and Superior Court Judges, including the Supreme Court Chief Justice, Attorney General, Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan and Chief Election Commissioner, shall be subject to the approval of the senate of Pakistan.
  1. Federal Shariat Court being a supra-parliamentary body, shall be done away with.
  • On Foreign Affairs, Sindh United Party is in the best interest of the country that Pakistan should maintain good relations with all its neighbouring countries, particularly Afghanistan and India, through non-interference in their internal affairs. This will reduce border tensions and, consequently, the defense budget. The funds so saved shall be spent on the country’s development to bring peace, Progress and Prosperity.

 

Party Declaration

  1. Sindh United Party will continue striving for a social contract among the historic nations of the country by the Lahore Resolution of 1940, which ensures that the national entities are politically, financially and administratively autonomous in their respective states based on parity within the multinational federation, and under which historic federal entities can safeguard their distinct cultural identity and achieve complete control over their resources and the right to rule by peaceful political struggle.
  2. Based on the parity of nations, the SUP will endeavour for democracy, the rule of law, freedom of expression, an independent judiciary, and sovereign parliament and equal status of all the citizens and the nations.
  • Party will establish social justice by alleviating illiteracy, poverty and social discrimination through the judicious distribution of resources and powers. It will endeavour to raise the living standards of citizens and take measures for their material and spiritual progress. It will forge a meaningful relationship between the accountable State/Government and the responsible and dutiful citizens by creating balance in the fundamental rights and responsibilities of the citizens.
  1. Considering politics as a source to bring about social change and to govern the country, the Sindh United Party will seek the power for Good Governance based on fundamental principles that are participatory, consensus, oriented, accountable, responsive, transparent, effective & efficient, equitable & inclusive and to establish the rule of law. The party will take measures to develop a better administrative setup through legal reforms and to make institutions strong, service-oriented and meritorious.
  2. Party will consider such individuals, tribes and cultural groups as integral parts of the national unit, who are permanently settled in the Country’s national teams and consider its political, economic, and cultural rights and interests as their own, and strive to achieve and protect those rights besides believing in defending the national historical and geographical frontiers of their national units in the country.
  3. Pursuing the glorious historical, cultural and civilized traditions of the ancient Indus Civilization, the Party will bring an end to discrimination based on gender, color, creed, religion, beliefs and language by the tenet Live and Let Live will respect human dignity and freedom of individual and promote the political and religious liberty and tolerance in the society in line with universal objectives of unity of humanity, which could be attained through the principle of peaceful coexistence.