Volume 1, Issue 3
August 2013
SINDHI AMERICAN POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE
SINDH GUARDIAN
Inside this issue: Transcripts from SAPAC’s 4th Annual Celebration Congressman Brad Sherman
2-4
Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney
5-6
Congressman Adam Schiff
6
Honorable Tommy Wells
7-8
Mr. Nathir Lalchandani
8-9
Dr. Shashi Lalvani
9-11
Dr. Gul Agha
12-14
Mr. Shankar Lakhavani
14-15
About the speakers
15
Page 2
SINDH GUARDIAN
Congressman Brad Sherman Hello, I‟m Brad Sherman form California‟s best-named city, Sherman Oaks. It‟s a pleasure to be with you again, as I have been here at each one of the dinners of this organization. Professor I listened to you comments carefully. It is interesting that a court would reject DNA evidence, because it is not mention in sharia. Fingerprint evidence is also not mentioned anywhere in the Quran, but fingerprint evidence is chiefly used to convict people who have committed violence against men, and killed them, or stolen their property. DNA evidence is not mentioned in the Quran its single greatest use is to convict men for crimes of violence against women. Suddenly one type of evidence not mentioned in the Quran is accepted for 50 years, the other a new form of evidence available chiefly to protect women is somehow anti-Islamic. I don‟t think that the true profit and those around him would sit here quietly and to see the Quran abused for such ends. With me here are my two aids, Siamak Kordestani, who is my advisor on foreign policy. Siamak himself is from an ethnic and religious minority in south-west Asia area, so he has some identification from those of you from Sindh. Also with me is Mark. Mark has recently joined me as my advisor on economic issues, and if you can give either one of these staffers your card, I will stay in touch with you and keep you up to date. Although, I know that Sufi does an outstanding job at that. I should begin by saying Sindhee marhun khay salahm bhaleekahr. I want to thank Sufi for everything he‟s done to promote Sindhi and the US relationship with the people of Sindh. In recent years he has been joined by him wife Fatima. What an outstanding team. As many of you know, I am a senior member of the House of Foreign Affairs Committee, and joined with colleagues in founding the Sindh Caucus, which now includes Tom Petri, who wished he was here, Carolyn Maloney, who was here, and Adam Schiff, who will be here electronically, and Representative John Lewis, the conscious of the United States Congress. I‟ve had a close relationship with the people of Sindh since before I was born, since 1951. My grandfather was there working for the United Nations International Labor Committee. He was a specialist in technical education. He talked often of the time he spent in Sindh as my grandmother spoke of it often as
well. Just as he helped the people of Sindh with technical education, Sufi and this organization, this Sindhi Pac, has provided me with an education on the people of Sindh, and there natural respect for the values that make America great, due impart to moderate and Sufi influenced form of Islam. Pakistan is perhaps the most difficult, diplomatic, and national security problem. It is so close to everything we are concerned about; whether it be Afghanistan, our relations to the Islamic world, and those few who have perverted Islam for their own purposes. It is the only unstable nuclear state and a country with which we maintain a frien-emy kind of relationship. For past few years, I‟d been urging the congress and especially the administration to reach out to the Sindhi people that have been marginalized by their own government, and to reach out in the Sindhi language, and with respect for Sindhi culture. If we buy into the views of a few in Islamabad, who believe that Pakistan will be some homogenous state with everyone speaking Urdu, we will misunderstand Pakistan, we will not develop a relationship with the Pakistani people, and we will certianly not develop a relationship with the people of the southern third of Pakistan in Sindh. We must join with the Sindhis in opposing the effort to glorify extremism and violence in Pakistan, and all the things the professor was talking about before me. We can
VOLUME 1, ISSUE 3
Page 3
Urdu.” The fact is that, many in rural Sindh can say a few phrases in Urdu, but that‟s not how you reach out to them and convince them of the beneficence of the United States. I speak a few phrases Just last week, Congressman Dana of Spanish, a few phrases of Italian, but if you Rohrabacher and I introduced to the Defense were gonna try and sell me a car or an ideology, Authorization Act. I want to bring that to your atits best you do it in English. You saw me early in tention, although many of you know about it. this speech demonstrate at least one phrase of Keep in mind the vast majority of our extremely Sindhi, yet none of you would argue that a Sindhi large amount of aid of Islamibad goes to the delanguage radio station is the best way to persuade fense bill. They give almost 2 billion dollars a Mark or myself of any particular ideology. We year. It goes through the Coalition don‟t have to listen to IsSupport Funds program. We prolamabad, because we vided a requirement on that can instead look at program before further funds what happened on are dispersed. That is that the “... you reach people in the the grounds in the president must analyze the Sindh province; thirlanguage that they are most situation and disperse the ty radio stations are funds only if he can certify comfortable with, not the broadcasting in Sinthat Pakistan is not using any dhi supported by language the government says is of our military aid or fund, any tens of thousand of of our equipment to persemost politically correct.” advertisers who do cute minority groups for their business in Sindh. legitimate and non-violent poThey know how to get a litical and religious involvement. message across; I‟m This specifically needs to include the afraid that there are those at the Voice of America Baloch as well the Sindhis, the Hazara and other who don‟t. We will be pressing them because, just minority religious and ethnic groups, including the this week, the full committee is going to meet for Christians, Hindus, and Ahmadiyya. The amendhearings on the Voice of American and our broadment was passed, as part of a group of amendcasting program. And I am going to again, and ments, unanimously by the House of Representaagain going to bring up the fact that my amendtives. It is part of the bill that we sent to the Senment was passed overwhelmingly by a committee ate. You may have seen its coverage in the Hinto say that we should be broadcasting in Sindh, du Stand times and a number other South Asian and a spending again the 1.5 million dollars a year publications, and I think the message will get to do so. To think that we could reach tens of milthrough to Islamibad, that the people of America lions of people by spending a billion and a half don‟t want to see our aid used to persecute the dollars, and yet, due to the political pressure that ethnic and religious minorities in Pakistan. you are gonna win a popularity contest at an ISI party. That‟s not where we should be trying to win A number of us, including Carolyn Maloney, the popularity contest; it should be to be popular who was here, Tom Petri, the republican from with all of the people in Pakistan. Wisconsin, have sent a letter to the relevant appropriations sub committee calling for them to I was just on the phone with the State Departembrace the strongest possible language, that ment to press them, not only on this issue, be1.5 million dollars be spent by the Voice of Americause I want a clear answer from our embassy in ca to broadcast in the Sindhi language. We‟ve Islamabad as to where they stand as to broadcastgot some opposition from inside the administraing in the Sindh language. But I‟m also pressing tion. People who said, “Oh, we can be more popthem to reach out in the Sindh language by web, ular with the powers that be in Islamabad if we website, and Facebook. I‟m told we have someembrace their view that everybody in Pakistan thing on the web in Sindhi. We have a few things speaks Urdu.” In fact the administration got back on our Facebook page. It‟s surprising to learn that to us and said, “Oh, we can just reach to the peoour Facebook page draws far more interest in Paple of Pakistan in Urdu. We were told by the Pakistan than the does our website. But we can‟t just kistani government that everybody understands best do that by reaching out to the people of Sindh, not thinking we can talk to those in the government in Islamabad.
Page 4
(Continued from page 3)
put up a few press releases; everything we are trying to communicate to the people of Pakistan should be in Urdu, yes, and in Punjabi, yes, and in Sindhi and maybe Balochi as well, and they are doing a reasonably good job in Pushtu. So whether you are trying to sell an ideology in Pakistan, or you are trying to sell cars in Los Angeles, you reach people in the language that they are most comfortable with, not the language the government says is most politically correct. That’s why thirty radio stations are able to support themselves on Sindhi language advertising. Our state department had done some good things, in part because of the pressure of your organization and the Sindhi Caucus in Congress. The Karachi conciliate senior media advisor is a native Sindhi speaker, and it is his job to reach out to the people of Sindh. Now in addition to that, the ambassador has toured Sindh on more than one occasion, and I think is finally opening up to the importance of that region. The State Department is doing a better job on focusing on economic development, health, culture, and media activities in Sindh. Ambassadors Olsen’s two -day visit to Sindh included, and this was just a few months ago, he met with the student activist civil society, business, the media, political leaders; he toured the city of Jacobabad, city of Sukkur. I hope that you will not evaluate my understanding of these issues by my pronunciation capacity. I hope my technical understanding beats my pronunciation, but I will continue to try. Ambassador Olsen was joined by a key official of AID, the Sindh minister of health, and the Sindh minister of rehabilitation. The ambassador spoke at the groundbreaking ceremony to officially initiate construction of the Jacobabad institute of medical science which is a state of the ark hospital. The United States is providing 10 million dollars for that facility, and this will expand access to quality healthcare for, not only the residents of Jacobabad but people in neighboring areas as well. The ambassador also visited Daraza to pay respects at the shrine of the Sufi poet, Sachal Surmast. As you know that poet died in 1829 after 90 years of life and the ambassador met with Sindhi journalist in television. Last year the State department offered an international visitor leadership program to Sindhi speaking journalist; this marks the fist time that any state department exchange programs has been offered in Sindhi.
SINDH GUARDIAN
That program annually brings to the United States journalist from all over the world to meet and confer with professional counterparts here in the United States. Due to the work of the people in this room, our caucus, and this Pac, we’ve finally able to put Sindh on the State Department’s map. In December, a number of us, including now former Congressman Robert Dold, and I speared in an effort, we got 15 members of Congress to join us to urge that Secretary of State Clinton push for greater rights and protections for religious right of minorities in Pakistan. A number of us were outraged at the treatment of young Hindu girls in various Pakistan, including, unfortunately Sindh. As a senior member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, and an active member of the International Religious Freedom Caucus, I believe that we have to fight to protect the ethnic and religious minorities in Pakistan. In conclusion, we’ve done a lot since our caucus was formed in Jan of 2011; you’ve done a done a lot since this Pac was formed just a few years ago. I look forward to building on our friendship. I want to thank a lot of people in this room for the fact that I am standing here; not just those of you who invited me to a free dinner, but those who made sure I can stand here as a re -elected member of Congress. As it happened, I was up in a race against a very capable man who had served 30 years in Congress and I am now committed to serving another 30 years in Congress, because of the electoral success we had there. I couldn’t have done it without the some of the people in this room who helped me out, who gave me advice, and who gave me financial resources. I look forward on building my friendship with you and building upon the friendship between the American people and the Sindhi people. As G.M. Syed said a few decades ago, “we have been Sindhis for five thousand years, Muslims for five hundred years, and at that time Pakistanis for forty years.” We need to be to reach out to the people of Sindh with that kind of understanding; that this is a truly ancient civilization that has and its own culture, its own language, its own approach to Islam for hundreds and hundreds of years. Those who thing that we can reach all of Pakistan by going to parties with ISI officials in Islamabad do not understand Sindh, do not understand the other part of Pakistan as well. As many have said, - Jiye Sindh! Thank you very much.
Page 5
VOLUME 1, ISSUE 3
Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney Thank you so much Dr. Bhatti and all of you. It is my great honor to be here with you today. I was at your event last year and have joined the caucus that Brad Sherman heads so brilliantly. The problem is that I represent New York City and I have to get back tonight and the last plane is at 9 o’clock. So I have to run back, but Dr. Bhatti has made sure that I will focus on this very important bill that has passed the house. It has passed the house and is now in the Senate that non of the military equipment or supplies should be directed towards human rights, towards the Sindhis, women, children, or anyone else. I would take that further and say that we need a full accounting of where any American aid goes, and it should be distributed proportionately throughout the country. He tells me that the Sindhi people do not receive the aid that it justly deserves. I want to particularly thank Sufi Laghari for inviting me to SAPAC and making sure that I got here. First of all, I would like to applaud all of you for the important outreach work you are doing with SAPAC. It’s not just in your interest, but its very much in America’s national interest for us to know and understand more fully the histories and views of the Sindhi people. And in our efforts to use public diplomacy to battle extremism, there is no place in the world where it is more important for the United States to have reliable friends and allies than in Pakistan. The more that Americans understand about just who you are, who the Sindhi people are, the better it will be for all of us, and the easier it will be to craft more effective and more Sindhi -friendly policies. I think a great deal of Americans would be surprised to learn that in 2006, I was surprised to learn this, the best selling poet in America was not Walt Whitman, Dickenson, Robert Frost, or Emerson, but a 13th century Sufi mystic Rumi, the number one selling poet in America. That is really something. So thank you again for undertaking your education and
outreach mission. I am honored to be a part of the bipartisan Congressional Sindh Caucus and I have a profound respect for the Sindhi people, the culture, the history, and the important role that Sindhis and Sindhi Americans can play in opposing extremism and violence and all of its forms. That is one of the reasons why along with my fellow caucus members, Brad Sherman, Thomas Petri, we sent a letter this month to the Secretary of State Kerry requesting that the State Department produce a version of the US -Karachi consulate website in the Sindhi language. And we are hopeful that Secretary of State Kerry will respond to our request. We pointed out that the response to pervious outreach in the Sindhi language has been positive, from opinion leaders, like intellectuals, and journalist. We also sent a letter to the Appropriations Subcommittee on state foreign operations asking that they set aside 1.5 million of the funds made available for the voice of America to be used exclusively for the purpose of Voice of America Sindhi language broadcasting. This needs to be a two way conversation. Another priority that I share with SAPAC is ending the mistreatment of minorities, and of women and children. This has always been a subject close to my heart, and putting an end to these types of crimes is what makes a civilization great. According to the US State Department trafficking in persons report of 2011, Pakistan is listed as a source, transit, and destinations country for trafficking in persons. This is something that we need to work together to stop. Much of the trafficking is motivated by extremes of poverty and is concentrated in the Sindhi province. Children work as modern day slaves in brick kills, making carpets, and mines, and making cheap glass bangles. An estimated 70% of those trafficked are females under the age of 25. In Pakistan today, Sindhis of all ages have suffered terribly at the hands of their own government. Women have suffered at the hands of their own countrymen and children have suffered at the hands of human traffickers. Sadly for now a world united against cruelty, against intolerance, inequality, extremism and violence is only a place that the poets dream of. If you compare the savagery of the daily reality for millions to the lyrical and loving elegance of a
Page 6
(Continued from page 5)
world as envisioned by the great Sufi poets and mystics, the dizzying dissonance that these two pictures create produces a message that orders the heart into action. Written in a language that is understood by all. I have seen your work, and I have heard your message and I agree with you whole-heartedly that we must find a way to unite together in a way that transcends the barriers of language, culture, and religion, while preserving the rights of all to preserve their own culture and follow their own conscience. The great Sufi mystic Hafiz once described the purpose of a poet. He
SINDH GUARDIAN said a poet is someone who can pour light into a cup, then raise it to nourish your beautiful, parched, holy heart. Together let us fill a cup with light and raise it together in a toast to mutual friendship and understanding between two great people, Americans and the Sindhis, and may it nourish your beautiful, holy heart and your holy cause. Thank you for inviting me today. I wish I could stay all evening. In the future don‟t have it on Friday nights, I have to work weekends. I have to leave and go back to New York. Thank you for your good work and thank you for all that you are doing for democracy and equality and fair treatment to all peoples. Thank you very much.
Congressman Adam Schiff Good evening, I‟m Congressman Adam Schiff from California‟s 28th district and I apologize for not being able to be with you this year, but I wanted to send my warmest greetings to all of you as you celebrate SAPAC‟s 4th Anniversary. These are challenging times for all Pakistani‟s, while the country continues to lurch from crisis to crisis, the recent elections are a milestone as a democratically elected government completed its term and then lost the subsequent ballot. While I know that many of people of Sindh voted overwhelmingly for the PPP, this is nonetheless a victory for democracy and one that should be celebrated and acknowledged. I‟ve long admired the people of Sindh, they have been buffeted by the challenges facing Pakistan as a whole from poverty and natural disasters, to the growing religious extremism of some Pakistani‟s, and the capriciousness, corruption and ineffectiveness of the government in Islamabad. Indeed geography and demography have made Sindh especially vulnerable to both natural and man-made challenges. And yet Sindh remains the most tolerant part of Pakistan, its Sufi traditions, welcoming infusions from other cultures create a more hopeful vision of what Pakistan could be and can be if we continue to press Islamabad to simultaneously confront extremists and curb antidemocratic forces within the military and the ISI. I continue to speak to Pakistani officials regarding the country‟s blasphemy laws and strains of intolerance, which is so hurtful to the people of Sindh, but I have also seen the virtue of trying to with our government to create a stronger bond with the people of Sindh within the context of our larger relationship with Pakistan. I have pressed for aid to help Sindhi people devastated by flooding, and have been really moved by the
suffering in recent years from too much rainfall. I have also pushed for more dialogue in the Sindhi language. Speaks Sindhi:
For those of you who are not as fluent in the Sindhi language as I am, what I said is that I believe it is important for the United States to communicate with other peoples in their languages, it is a sign of respect for others, and it reduces the chances of miscommunication. I believe that this is an important diplomatic tool, especially with respect to Sindh. So I am pushing for the 2014 State Foreign Operations Appropriations Bill to contain language pressing the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) to explore the feasibility of beginning Sindhi transmissions on the Voice of America to Pakistan. I‟ve also joined with my colleagues Brad Sherman and Carolyn Maloney in sending a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry asking him to produce a version of our Karachi Consulate‟s website in Sindh. As the letter notes, Sindh is spoken by 12% of Pakistani‟s, and has more native speakers than Urdu. As the appropriations process for 2014 continues, I‟ll continue to press these issues and hope that sometime soon, Sindhis will be able to hear the Voice of America and read our Consulate‟s website in their own language. Again many thanks for inviting me my apologies for not be there in person and I wish you a wonderful evening. Thank you, and good night.
Page 7
VOLUME 1, ISSUE 3
Honorable Tommy Wells Well, Munawar, I remember very well. You came up to me under the tree and said, “Are you Tommy Wells?”, and I said “yes.” And you said “ You‟re running for mayor, right?” and I said “yes”. You were so uncertain that that was me, but I know you would have not let your taxicab go unless you weren‟t certain that it was me under that tree. So we rode the bus together, and that was a very great start. Amazingly, the bus was on time and we went to the announcement, and I have to tell you it rained. I really felt like everyone that was there, really wanted to be there. So thank you for being a part of that, that meant a lot to me and also all you do in this community. This is part of the ward I represent, ward 6, right here at the Channel Inn right along the channel here, and it‟s a great part of Washington. I am honored to be here, and let me just that in listening to the talks and the speeches let me say this to Congressman Sherman. Congressman Sherman, this is a very difficult time in our country and elected leadership. A lot of the message goes out that we are intolerant, and anti people who aren‟t originally from American, and sometimes we have a very mean face to the rest of the world. Congressman, you really show what‟s best about our country; you make be very proud. The story that I heard about you, right off the bat saying that I‟m going to be part of this, you listened and are now providing leadership. It makes be proud of my federal government, when sometimes I am not as proud. So thank you for your leadership, and I would like to give you a hand as well. One of the things about being here, which is great opportunity for me, is to learn more about the diversity of the different people that make up this great country, and also make up this great city. Washington D.C. is the fastest growing city in America, and it‟s a city that you can see that we are building quite rapidly. We‟ve gone through a recession that has affected the whole world, but D.C., for now, is a growing city, a vibrant city, and why this group, what you‟re doing is so important. In my estimation, from what I can tell in my meager observation of our country, Washington D.C. is the indispensible city for the next 15 years. As our world goes through uncertainty, as different wars break out, but also with the financial instability all through the world, that this is now what we call the “Asian shift”, that
D.C., that it is not strange the it is growing, that the world‟s eye is on our city. The truth is that, in running for local leadership, in looking to becoming the mayor for Washington, I am very aware the rest of the world‟s eye is upon us. How we act, and how we treat those that live within our boundaries, and the aspirations and how we act, hopefully is a message to the rest of the world. We have certainly made great strides on issues of marriage equity, and other issues related really to showing that we are a compassionate city, that we take care of the people in Washington and we embrace their diversity is something that I know that we have to try to be a beacon, we have to be responsible, and we have to do this in a way that really shows our country well. Let me also say, that here in the nation‟s capitol, much like the Sindhi people in Pakistan, we do not have all the same rights and representation in our national government. In Washington D.C., while we fight in our wars, we pay the same amount of taxes, and we take the responsibility of stewardship in the name of our nation‟s capitol very seriously. We also understand that we must be a model for the world, especially during these uncertain times. What we share is the dignity, that we do not have a vote in our national government, that we are not represented, and that, in the most powerful body, the Senate, and in the House, that again, the people of Washington D.C. do not have an
Page 8
SINDH GUARDIAN
(Continued from page 7)
elected representative. But that does not mean that at any time, we lose or can put aside any level of our citizenship and the responsibilities that come with that. We are citizens of the United States of America. We are citizens of the nation‟s capitol, and we have a duty and responsibility to make our country proud, but also show the obligations of citizenship in a way that makes us all proud. As I‟ve learn more and more about the Sindhi people, and learned about tolerance, compassion, and liberalism, that we shared together a vision, not just for our communities, not just one province or one city, but truly share a vision for a world that is not only tolerant, but is a world that can heal those that are injured, a world that take care of us in the beginning of our lives and takes care of all of us towards the end of our lives equally, with dignity, and in a way that we are not really judged by our religion, judged by our language, or judged in any other way. That‟s what I hope for the best of our country of the United States, because we are a country that is made up of peoples from all across the world,
including you. So we have a duty, to really build upon and show and lead to our aspirations, and that‟s part of why you are here, calling us, and calling on our elected officials. I love that you have formed a Pac; that‟s one of the most American things to do, a political action committee in order to see that you voice is heard, that your interests are promoted, and that‟s why I am thrilled to see the number of congressman involved in this Pac. Again, I cannot say enough about Congressman Sherman in showing how good we can be. We all see what is going on in Congress. Are we going to continue to provide food to the folks that need it through the farm bill? Are we going to continue to provide health insurance or health care to everyone that needs it? All of these things that I do believe at a local level sometimes we have to lead. In D.C. we have the highest coverage of health care for children in America, second highest for adults for everyone in the country. Again, I believe that our country really needs a symbol like Washington, and that‟s why I am honored that you selected me to be here this evening. Thank you very much.
Mr. Nathir Lalchandani Friends, if you permit me I will take mic in my hand, because like Mr. Munwar Laghari it is also quiet. Let me take you back to the history of Sindhi Association Political Action Committee. If I remember correctly, it was about 25/30 years, Munwar came to my temple Satya Nrayan Mandir of which I have been President for the last 25/30 years. It is in Queens, New York. Now, I have moved to Sacramento, California, after my wife passed away in January, 2012. Now, that I am in California, I will get more opportunity to meet Congressman Sherman. I am with my son, who is cancer specialist. Munwar Laghari has worked very hard, I must say like Mahatma Gandhi started single handed. If you know the history of India, Mahatmaji started non-violent movement and one time when he needed funds,
he stood in the street with open hands. You must have heard the name of Mr. Birla, an Industrialist who asked him "Mahatmaji I will give blank Check, write what ever amount you want." But you know what Mahatmaji said? He said no, I want community involved, even if some one gives me one rupee. I will accept rather than one million dollars/rupees from you. So this the history of Sindhi Association, before it became SAPAC. Earlier I was Chief Guest in one of his functions held in queens New York and once in Washington, when we had some artist/singers from Pakistan. I had told him then, listen "Munwar I will not help you politically but I shall always help you culturally. Once, he told me that Pakistan Government is building Dam in Punjab and this is going to affect Sindh by cutting down
water of Sindhu river. This diversion will ruin Sindh. That is exactly what has happened. This step motherly treatment Munwar was fighting for! Some of you might be aware that Sindh and Punjab were considered Grainery of pre-partition
Page 9
VOLUME 1, ISSUE 3
India. Sindh in way has been ruined agriculturally and economically. I remember that Sindhi business men of Hong Kong were trying to approach Government of Pakistan to give them some concessions and make Karachi semi-independent and they will make Karachi better than Hong Kong, because Hong Kong was going to be taken over by Chinese but Pakistan Government did not want. I must tell one more interesting thing. The Basmati rice what you are eating now is nothing in comparison "SUGDASI" rice of Sindh. If you cook sugdasi rice in Washington
you will get its fragrance in Maryland if not New York. It was so nice and where do you find such a quality. With political change in Government of Pakistan and now that Nawaz Shariff government is there and he wants good relations with India, may be time is right that Munwar and his team can work with U.S.Government and get help for sindhi community as whole. I do not know, what else to say but four years in an organization like this is not much period and we all should support Munwar Laghari and his to team to work and achieve its goal. After 42 years of
stay in New York, now I am in California and I have come all the way from Sacramento to attend this program. Munwar tried hard to get my telephone number and reached me and I really feel honored. Money is not every thing in life, fellow feeling, brotherhood and the way you at things is very important in life. Finally, I hope next time he will be able to gather bigger crowd and with the help from U.S. Government and congress man Like Brad Sherman and others, SAPAC team will achieve its goal. Thank you.
Dr. Shashi Lalvani
Dear friends, elected representatives of common, it is my great pleasure and honor to be here. First and foremost, the sweetest language is one that I heard in my cradle, and for me it was Sindhi; it makes me very proud. And recently, this is about 3 years ago, my wife Latika and I we ran Sadna School. This is a Sunday school format, for kids who grew up in India, kids who grew up in American with Indian parents. And we try to impart them values, culture, tradition of India. And as a part of education about religion, the great Indian tradition sikhism we wanted to introduce them to. So we took a trip to out local Gudwara temple, a sec temple in Cincinnati. And we told them our need, that we would like to bring kids to the temple and who would attend the service. And he said do you know anything about our religion. Well so both Latika and I spoke up. We said we are Sindhis and part of the Sindhi tradition is to appreciate sikhism, and there are, indeed, many Sindhi sikhism, although we are not. We know sec rituals and we
know traditions from that region. And the priest, he rose up from his chair and folded his hands and he said thank you. So we really did not know what he was thanking us for. He said our most religious sites, the sikhism actually originated in Punjab; the Punjab, which is now in Pakistan and non cara. He said those sites could not be met in by priest from India; Indian sikhs are not allowed to go to Pakistan and practice there. And he said we have to rely upon sindhis, sindhi sikhs from the Sindh province who run our temples. And that make me really, really proud. Now, we have heard about intolerance in Pakistan and antiterrorist organizations and all the negativity that we here about that country. Sindh is also not immune from the persecution of minorities, and professor Gul Agha spoke very eloquently to that. But he also talked about the tolerance that still exists, the rights of minorities that are honored in
Page 10
(Continued from page 9)
Sindh province. Sindhi is home to 93% of Hindus in Pakistan, and that‟s a very, very large percentage. So despite that fact that we hear about Hindus being driven out from Sindh, who are now trying to find refuge in India, it does talk about the tolerance and the human rights support that the Hindus and Sindh do enjoy to a certain extent. Now, the portrait of Sindh that I have is one that I have inherited from my parents, and other Hindu Sindhis who have fled from Sindh during the time of partition. By and large, most Hindus who left Sindh, were not due to the reason that there were conflicts between Sindhi Muslims and Sindhi Hindus, but it had to do with the fact that Muslims who were displaced from India and came to Sindh, wanted to “take revenge upon Hindus.” So in a way, we were driven out from Sindh by refugee Muslims from India. And that‟s the story I not only hear from my parents, but from my extended family, other Hindu friends, their parents. And many of these stories have not really been well chronicled, and that‟s something that we really need to work on. My father, his best friend was his Bulakazi, and I have shared a story about him. I wrote him a little note about it for my children, and I shared with Sufi, Munawar Laghari, and this was a bond that they enjoyed, that my father would take him to the Hindu Temple in Halani in central Sindh. And those are the things are the things you don‟t hear about now. So what it tells us is that Sindh could be a beacon, beacon of hope, beacon of tolerance, because it has the great tradition. Sindh embodies the two great the Abrahamic religion, which was first brought to the subcontinent to Sindh, and Hinduism. And then, when I used to talk to my mother in law, Latika‟s mother, her best friend from Pakistan was Neelofer. My father, till the very day that he died, he talked about his friend Hisbola. So this message of love and peace, that Sufi tradition embraces and endorses has continued on for a really long time. And the two greatest poets of Sindh, of the last century, Shaikayaz and Narasham, and I want to talk something about them, because they hold the hope. They like to look at things in a more positive way, no matter how bad things are, and we have examples. India and Pakistan went to war in 1965, and Shaikayaz, he opposed the war, and he wrote a poem, and he suffered very
SINDH GUARDIAN
dearly for writing that poem. And I know many in the audience know that. For me it was a discovery. It was a discovery for the reason that there was, until about 5-10 years ago, an iron curtain in between India and Pakistan. We did not get the news about Pakistan; we did not get the news about Sindh. And it was much later that I learned about this poem, and it‟s a really moving and touching poem. So I am going to read a few lines from that. And he wrote this poem for his friend Narasham, and Narasham had, by that time, migrated to India. And he says
The poem says that on this side of the bottle I am standing, and across from me on the other side is Narasham. We speak the same language, we look the same, he‟s a poet Loret. I also know how to compose poetry. We are of the same soil, our lord is the same, our fears of persecution, and he was referring to a politician of India. We have suffered from that to. I cannot lift a gun at him, I cannot shoot at him. And Pakistan at the time was suffering from dictatorship, and he was sent to prison for writing this poem. And that shows the courage that Shaikayaz had for standing up for his only people; not only that but more importantly for humanity. You have a map of Sindh on your table and you can look at it. And Narasham in exile in India and he was in New Deli at the time. When he composed the poem and I‟ll read it again, I‟ll read it for you. And that refers to the map of the Sindh.
VOLUME 1, ISSUE 3
Loosely translated, it says a chance glance at the map of Sindh evokes emotions immense, like the young bride immersed in gaiety and laughter she suddenly realizes the desire immense for her lover; and that‟s how he felt about Sindh. So that‟s coming form a emotion level, but at an intellectual level, at an analytical level, the reason why we want to engage more with Sindh, and that‟s the argument that I would like to make. Both India and Pakistan are very similar countries, we hear about bad things Pakistan, and to a certain extent, that‟s also true in India. India‟s a democracy, Pakistan I hope would also become a true democracy, but there is a rational why the two countries should become democratic, and that has to do with the fact that they are not both nations in the sense that we understand them, when we look at the European model. India is composed of 18, 20 states. People are diverse from north to south, they speak different languages; they have different cultures. Not only linguistically they are different; ethnically. They do not necessary share the same history. If you look at the state of Marata, the capital of which is Bombay and also happens to be my home, it has a mariachi speaking population of 110 million. Germany has a population of 80 million. Bengal has a population of 80 million, Bangladesh has a population of 110 million and it is a country in its own right. Similarly, Sindhis, I just learned, I thought there were 35 million, but I am happy to know that we are 50 million. So I am not advocating the case for separatism because that does not work and we have seen that; we have seen that in Punjab in India where Sikhs wanted to have a separate state and they failed. And you are specially going to fail if you want a democratic union. If you look at Sri Lanka on the other hand where Tomins wanted to have a separate province or country and they failed too. But when you are a dictatorship like Pakistan had, Bangladesh did succeed from the union. So it is in the best interest of Pakistan to remain democratic, so I have hope, although things seem bleak. If we were to trace the history of Pakistan, we would see that gradually it would become more and more democratic for it to survive. Otherwise it would be difficult, and I don‟t think any organization would want to dissolve itself. So the argument I would make as to why the US government should engage more with Sindh has to do with the very reason. Cause if you really want to reach out to people, so that we can engage with them in trade, commerce, promotion of culture, promotion of our
Page 11
values as well, and then you deal with them at the level that they are comfortable with. It is not going to be in Urdu, it‟s going to be in Sindhi, but it will be in Punjabi and Balochi and Marati and Bangali and so that‟s what I truly believe in. And Sindh is a shining example; it has amazing history; a great track record. It is a province, a state, a country that has never invaded any other country. When we look at the ruins of Mohanjedaro one of the ancient civilizations in the world, you don‟t find armament there are no signs of that so hopefully the people were peaceful. So that „s the message I would like to share with you. My love for Sindh emanates from the ability to speak the language, which I feel very comfortable. I had my high school education in Sindhi and on a sad note, I would also like to observe is that although Hindu Sindhis who have migrated away from Sindh and have done exceedingly well, they pride themselves as being jewels of India, are extremely successful in business and professional fields, are very rapidly loosing their Sindhi roots. Their ability to speak the language is terrible. They don‟t understand Sindhi dialects; they have very little knowledge of Sindhi history, its language and now traditions. And that really hurts me. Its hurts me because I see over 3 million people who had such a rich history are rapidly fading away. So I hope our Sindhis in Sindh who would create and foster an environment where we can make Hindu Sindhis proud of their heritage. Things that I would like to suggest, not it is possible, to build museums for Hindu Sindhis to come back and visit the shrines that could be restored. These Hindu Sindhis have to feel proud of their heritage and that will also happen when Sindh becomes more economically viable. Now it is easier said than done, but Hindu Sindhis living outside of Sindh are in a position to in my opinion to contribute, come back the way the Chinese did, the overseas Chinese did to china and overseas Indians are doing it in India. The people from Silicon Valley are going back to Bangalore and starting new business. Hindhu Sindhis have traditionally been very great businessman and have been trading for centuries now. There are records of Sindhis financing czars for example, so I hope that would happen. That‟s about all I have to share with you, thank you.
Page 12
SINDH GUARDIAN
Dr. Gul Agha Welcome everyone; it’s a pleasure to be here. In the past years, I’ve sort of presented slides of Sindh and so on. This year I was asked to sort of give an extempore presentation about my experiences. I’ve been involved for the last almost 30 years now for human rights in Sindh through various organizations and various activities. And it’s nice to see it coming to fruition in SAPAC in increasing awareness.
agencies insisted. He asked that the ISI, which is the intelligence agency, he brought under the command of the interior ministry and he was refused and rejected. They removed the power that he had to appoint judges.
So this is sort of the situation in Pakistan. Only 4 of the 19 high court judges in Sindh are Sindhi. The rest are non -Sindhi speaking. So even though there was a government that was elected after the killing of Benezir Bhutto they We have huge problems, which have only felt obliged not to manipulate the elections as increased unfortunately over the last 30 years, rather than gotten better. It seems to be the case much as they did this time. They rendered the since the last 60 years actually, since government toothless and the creation of Pakistan, powerless when they were “We have huge problems, unfortunately. The situation is democratically elected and quite dire. As you know the last were putting forward which have only increased election was severely rational policies . unfortunately over the manipulated. Hundreds of secular Today in fact to see the candidates were attacked and last 30 years…” situation of what government assassinated; there were a large we have the Punjab government note of assassinations particularly in announced as they have been the Pakhtun province, resulting in essentially the doing for the last two years that cause its in the disenfranchisement of a lot of people. And to just hands of the opposition a 61 million rupee grant to give you an idea of what kind of government, so an organization called Jamaat al Dawa. It’s a grant we’ve always had these security agencies, which from the government. Now Jamaat al Dawa is a are really running a shadow government and organization that is band by the United Nations. Its people said “well you have a government that’s head office was wanted for the terrorist attacks in the democratic government that was nominated Mumbai. And the government justifies it by saying by Sindhis in the last 5 years.” The reality was “well we band it, the UN band it so we band it.” A that they in fact did not allow that government to reporter showed up just a couple of years ago, function. For example, the president who was two years after the band was announced at the from Sindh said that they ought to have a trade headquarters of this organization who are now treaty with India. And he started negotiations of a getting a grant from the government. And Hafiz Saeed trade treaty and wanted to have free trade, which who is a wanted terrorist, goes around making makes perfect sense. speeches quite freely. There was no sign of any If you look at the United States, the largest government officials from the Pakistan trading partner is Canada, not china. Next in line government. The people said, “no we don’t see is Mexico, almost on par with the Chinese. them, they come and they give us money, and Considering the size of Mexico and the Chinese that’s the only role.” So now this terrorist outfit economy, you can kind of see the difference. And which did not target the Pakistan -Sindhi, which is now coming in power, they targeted the Awami now you can just imagine, how large a trading national party, the party candidates all the partner US is for Canada makes perfect sense. secular parties. They have been paid for the last But we got the Mumbai attacks as a result from several years by the government with no the security agencies to kill off any negotiations on the free trade agreement and block the free supervision no control, just officially “well we band trade agreement. The president declared that them and their running charities.” there should be no first strike policy on nuclear What are the charities, well you have these weapons, it should be our state policy. And he madrasasas, the madrasas is a considered was removed from the national Security Council; charities. And the government is officially giving he was no longer allowed to be on it, the security
VOLUME 1, ISSUE 3
them money as a response to a band from the United Nations; the Security Council declaring them as a terrorist outfit. Said ok and we take them over and they’ll be run by the government, with exactly the same people running these organizations. And then the reporter was hushed away; this was in the Pakistani news paper, and then the stories never covered again. If you look at the number of journalist killed in Pakistan, it’s not too surprising, it’s of the highest mortality rate for journalist, even beyond Syria and Afghanistan, as the most dangerous country, it was on the top of the list of the PFUJ which is a society to protect journalists. So these are the conditions under which the country is functioning. Congresswoman Maloney mentioned the rights of women, there is a council called for Islamic Jurisprudence, which basically give ruling, which the courts are supposed to obey. Most recently the council gave a ruling saying that DNA evidence could not be used in rape trials, that it could not be primary evidence, you could not build a case around DNA, and of course their reasoning is that it’s not mentioned in the Sharia. Well 1400 years ago, it seems that they did not know about DNA evidence. The only assembly which went immediately, and again will be toothless because they have no control over the judges, they have no control over the courts. The only assembly that passed a unanimous resolution condemning it is the Sindh assembly. The sort of people that we have now in government, there is a party, which was the beneficiary of all the assassinations in Pakhtunkha, which was Imran Khan’s party Tahreek Insaaf their members of national assembly demanded that the assassins of the Punjab governor, so there was a governor Tasir, who was a liberal governor appointed by President Zardari to the province of Punjab and he was assassinated by religious fanatics in the Punjab, the only assembly that condemned that again was the Sindh assembly. The Punjab assembly did not even pass a resolution of condolence. And in fact the decree of fundamentalism of the areas from which the military and the security of practice of Pakistan comes is such that even the lawyers from that region said that if anyone defends the murder, the assassins of the governor who did it in broad daylight then that person should be also
Page 13
assassinated. This is the lawyers bar of association; that they would be expelled from the bar of association and so on. The Sindh assembly was the only one that condemned it. Now a member of the national assembly who won Imran Khan’s party has demanded that the assassins of governor Tasir be released. They should just be let go because they have killed. Now what was the crime of governor Tasir? The governor Tasir’s crime was that he met a young woman, 13 year old Christian woman, who had been accused of blasphemy and was being tried, which is capital offense, tried for the death penalty and turned out that she is illiterate and she was supposed to have blasphemed by some piece of paper that was written in Arabic that was a piece of the Quran and she didn’t know what it was. She was working as a cleaning person in child labor and the governor went and met her in prison and was assassinated as a result. But of course there may be fanatics anywhere, not only that he was assassinated, but the assembly of the province refused to issue a condemnation, refused to issue condolences. Now the elected members of the national assembly of the party that will be leading in the Pashtun area where there was a campaign of assassinations against the secular party of Awami national party. Which has a long secular history by the way, they were pacifists in resisting the British. Their leader Gafar Khan was called Bachakhan, very well respected. Always won the elections. After the creation of Pakistan, they kept him in prison and they kept him out of elections. Well there was a campaign of assassinations and as I mentioned about 700 people were assassinated including all the candidates so they could not hold a rally, they could not campaign, they could not do anything at the last election. They have been replaced by Imran Khan’s party who’s being backed by the intelligence agencies, and they are the ones demanding that all charges be dropped against the assassins of this previous governor. So these are the sort of conditions in the country and the only island of sanity that’s left is in the province of Sindh, which is rural area and poverty stricken and so on. But their representatives currently are still electing the
Page 14
SINDH GUARDIAN
(Continued from page 13)
most liberal candidates who say immediately respond by saying no DNA evidence must be considered. Unfortunately they are powerless as I mentioned. The courts are not controlled by them, they cannot appoint people to the courts and have very little authority. Their resolutions are often ignored. But they are still at the forefront and they represent the culture regardless of how cautious they are or how
compromised they might be in many ways they represent a culture, that is the most liberal culture in Pakistan that is the most tolerant the most concerned about minority rights concerned about the rights of women and we really need to foster that. So I‟d like to welcome Congressman Sherman. I‟m glad to see you and those were sort of my brief remarks on Sindh background. I think we can proceed further. Thank you
Mr. Shankar Lakhavani I‟m always pleased to see Congressman Sherman come to our meetings. It‟s always very heartening to see a long serving Congressman support the Sindhi cause. So I really appreciate that, Congressman. I also appreciate the many speakers who spoke and the many friends that are here tonight. If we could speak about some of the pain that the Sindhis have gone through, are going through, the issue of bonded labor of the Hindus in Sindh, of the Muslims in Sindh, the feudalism in Sindh, the lack of political participation, the lack of human rights and so on, but I‟ll not dwell on that. I‟ll dwell on something different. We Sindhis have come a long way. I‟ve been in North America for 40 years. And I have participated and helped several other Sindhi organizations begin and grow, and begin to participate in the American community and American way of life. I‟m very glad that SAPAC is giving a voice to the Sindhis in America. It is our right as well as our responsibility to participate in the political process and that shows the maturity of the community when they start to participate in the political process here in America. I‟m very grateful to Munawar, who has fought for many years, to finally find this place in the political process. I‟m very grateful to him that he has helped initiate this organization. I‟m also grateful to people like Dr. Halepota and some of the others who have consistently supported SAPAC. Many of the other Sindhi organizations basically help the Sindhis participate in some of the family activities, some of the cultural activities; this is different. And what I‟m hoping is that this organization, which is the only one that gives the Sindhi a political voice, will continue for another 40 years. And hopefully not only us, the first generation of Sindhi whose here, who started participating in the political participation, but our children will also participation the political process. And my hope is that your children, my children, our children will come and work as interns. I‟m always so excited to see the interns help this organization grow. We talked about Hanne Bursch. I met Hanne in London in one of the conferences that was organized. And believe me, it seemed like she knew how to organize not only the conference, but more important, Munawar Laghari. Munawar is very emotional, very creative, and he has all this creative force that needs to be channeled and Hanne was able to do that. So we need a solid political foundation for our children to participate and I think SAPAC is the vehicle that will help us do that. But we have to ensure that SAPAC becomes a permanent organization. A couple of years ago we talked and I was lamenting the fact that SAPAC does not have an office, and Munawar and along with other friends, within the matter of a couple of months had an office, they were operating in an office. I was really afraid for Munawar. I was afraid that he might go the Bill Clinton way if he continues to have interns operating from his home. I was very glad to see that he created the office, but here is the thing, but if we want this organization to have a permanent home in Washington D.C., it needs a permanent office. And a couple of weeks ago I was chatting with one of my friends, who shall remain anonymous today, and I was lamenting how come SAPAC does not have a permanent office. How come some of this other organizations who participate in the political process have permanent offices? From the labor unions to some of the other ethnic organizations and so on. This frame of mind presented me with a national public radio type of challenge. You know how the national public radio gives you a challenge? And this is what he said: “I am willing to support the creation of
Page 15
VOLUME 1, ISSUE 3
a permanent home for SAPAC provided for every dollar that I give, somebody else gives two dollars.” And he said I‟m willing to do that to the tune of 100,000 dollars. I thought that was a great challenge. I was not willing to take him up on that because you know I‟m not from Silicon Valley, I‟m from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Pittsburg was Silicon Valley about 150 years ago when we used to manufacture steel and we were coal country and at that time that was engine of growth, but not today. So I did not accept this challenge, but I‟m going to throw it out here amongst this august audience and see who is willing to take up this challenge, but the challenge is here. So and I think that we are to support it just like we support the national public radio, just like we support United Bay, etc. You know that recently we had the terrible bombing in Boston, and Americans rose up, and contributed within a matter of several weeks 35 to 50 million dollars. And so I think it can be done. I still remember, I was a member of another Sindhi organization, and every year I would take my family to the annual conference. My family, from the three days that we would spend there, we would have a lot of the cherries and listened to a lot of music and so on and every year drop around 1,500 dollars. But even then there were lots of pleas for collecting funds, and for good causes, buying ambulances back in Sindh and so on. But even those organizations never were able to create a permanent form, a permanent office. So I really think it‟s something we all should consider and if you are interested send an email to SAPAC and if there is sufficient interest, I‟m sure with the help of our interns we will be able to create an organization that will help you channel your hard earned cash into a permanent office for SAPAC. That‟s all I have.
About the speakers About Congressman Brad Sherman: Congressman Brad Sherman represents the 30th District of California in the United States House of Representatives. About Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney: Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney represents the 12th District of New York in the United States House of Representatives. About Congressman Adam Schiff: Congressman Adam Schiff represents the 28th District of California in the United States House of Representatives. About Tommy Wells for Mayor: The Honorable Tommy Wells is a member of the D.C Council and Chairman for the Committee of Public Safety. About Dr. Shashi Lalvani: Dr. Shashi Lalvani was a former professor at Southern Illinois University for 21 years. He is the founding chair of the chemical engineering and bioengineering majors at Miami University where he serves as the chair of the Chemical and Paper Engineering department since 2003.
About Mr. Nathir Lalchandani: Mr. Nathir Lalchandani is a humanitarian and has a received a Masters Degree in social work, specializing in personnel management and labor welfare and, privately practiced as a management consultant. About Dr. Gul Agha: Professor Gul Agha is a computer scientist and professor of computer science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the author of over 150 publications. About Mr. Shankar Lakhavani: Mr. Shankar Lakhavani is the Director & Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt at L6S Quality Solutions and teaches courses in probability and statistics and Lean Six Sigma at the University of Pittsburgh.
SINDHI AMERICAN POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE
Phone: 202-496-5300 E-mail: sapac.sindh@gmail.com
The Sindhi American Political Action Committee (SAPAC) is an organization which works to raise public awareness about issues relating to Sindh and the Sindhi people throughout the world. SAPAC emphasizes the significant link between the Sindh region and US national interests. For this purpose, SAPAC aims to advocate on behalf of the Sindhis and to positively influence American policies toward Sindh.
Visit Us Online!
The information and views set out in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of SAPAC.