Indeed, my Sindh was the land where peace, progress, social justice and human harmony, used to reign but unfortunately nowadays those norms and values, traits and attributes are on the wane. The past rulers and their touts hailing from the feudal and mercantile class used all devilish ways and means to corrupt, criminalise, damage and destroy the Sindhi society.
Meanwhile, when the present rulers appeared in the corridors of power and politics, the hopes and aspirations of the people of Sindh re-enkindled but within these four years, our incumbent provincial rulers only rode a roughshod over their hopes and aspirations.
Sindh is passing through a veritable crisis. A deterioration of healthcare and education infrastructure and an increasing spread of fatal and preventable disease,  such as Malaria, smallpox, tuberculosis, and others are  threats to the lives of the Sindhis, in particular, those of the flood and rain victims. Lamentably, life expectancy has shrunk between 45 to 50 years in the villages. However, the plight of  education,  which gives life to the nation and that of the irrigation,  which nurtures and nourishes life, is in miserable condition. Like the past successive rulers, the present rulers have done nothing done to improve the educational institution and the broken irrigation system in the province. The schools which were shut by the past dictators because they wanted to keep the people of Sindh illiterate and uneducated so that they keep on exploiting them are still shut. More painful is to declare that  hundreds of thousands of schools and colleges are without teachers and lecturers. Apparently, our rulers fully understand the universal truth which reads as: Better education means better life and they also: transforming agriculture and irrigation means, inspiring social change in the society. ZAB and her great daughter during their golden days paid utmost attention to the education and irrigation of Sindh province. Both were education-friendly so to speak. On the contrary, our present rulers are allergic to education and educated people. Regrettably, they have done nothing to ameliorate the lot of the educational institutions. All schools and colleges, which in the past used to be the classic in all respects, now afford a look of some deserted building. So much so, the prestigious university, which gives life to the Sindh and the Sindhis including the Sindhi language, literature, culture and civilizations, the University of Sindh, Jamshoro, remains shut owing to unrest by student and faculty. Around two months have gone by and the learned people called “the teachers”  are protesting for the acceptance of their due and lawful demands but  there is no one to address their chronic grievances. Apathy and insensitivity of our rulers towards education and educated people is  disgusting. Hazrat Ali has rightly said: To respect the learned is to respect God.” Yet our provincial rulers have to learn to respect the learned people.
It seems that our leaders are not fully aware of their responsibilities which is why they are not putting their house in order. That is why they are not playing their due role as “the architects” of the future and fortunes of the Sindhis. President, Asif Ali Zardari seems to be determined to develop the dilapidated education and irrigation system in the province but the provincial rulers are not honouring his vision and promises. Their attitude and actions have proved so.
However, I earnestly appeal to him to direct the minister education and that of irrigation department to spend the allocated amount fairly and judiciously and appoint God-fearing, people.
HASHIM ABRO,
Islamabad, February 20.