[An introduction paper of Sain Mansoor Karim Sial on "Seraiki National Congress." It is being published for the purpose of information dissemination and public discussion.]
Seraiki
National Congress
Preamble
Seraiki people have been aspiring to achieve their
rights, including the recognition of their culture, linguistic and ethnic
identity, and have been demanding their separate unit/entity in the federation
of Pakistan. On their part, they have successfully gained the status of large
distinct group of people enjoying a unique historical, social and cultural
background which is a fait accompli. But the state of Pakistan, so far, refuses
to recognize it as separate federal unit under the constitution of Pakistan.
With every passing day people’s struggle to achieve their legitimate right of
autonomy is intensifying. At the same time those nations of Pakistan who don’t
agree to Seraikis demand are launching various reactive offensives against the
peaceful Seraiki people. At this historical juncture Seraiki leadership, which
mainly comes from the middle classes, is poised to reorganize itself so as to
give impetus to the ongoing Seraiki national movement. In fact, Seraiki
activists are asking their people “what happened to you?” why your forefathers
let your people get massacred by invaders, why didn’t they check the hand of
the oppressors and resist, the onslaught of violent destroyers of your sanctity
and dignity? Why? Why? Because my forefathers were divided under their rulers,
they were caused to lose their nation hood.” To answer, Seraiki National Congress
(SNC) comes forward, and aims at carving out the strategies to help Seraiki
movement meet success.
Difficulties Facing Seraiki Movement
The main obstacle, all along, has been the nation /state building
processes prevalent in Pakistan. During the first decade the rulers—de facto as
well as de jure—predominantly belonged to the migrant population and obviously
they couldn’t fathom the multi-ethnic, multinational and multi-cultural essence
of the landmass then called West Pakistan. So, instead of re-organizing it into
various ethno-national entities and hence provinces, they made efforts to
create one-unit status for all the nations of the present–day Pakistan. And hence the nationalist aspirations and
urges of the various people were rather suppressed or ignored. At the same time
these processes encouraged the people to direct their energies towards gaining
the consciousness of security, religiosity and one-ness of all citizens (one
language, one nation, religion and so on). In line with this the state
oppressed those nations—Sindhi, Baloch and Pakhtuns—who resisted the offensive
of one-ness. Under these circumstances the emerging ethno-national feelings of
Seraikis were harassed; so they stood subdued.
Second difficulty, which was closely linked to the aforementioned main
one, was the political agenda or political cards which were played during the
first two decades. The ruling elite harped on the Kashmir card, strong defense,
allying with the western powers and anti-India postures. In this context the
kind of politics suited to this environment automatically became
pro-dictatorship, pro-autocracy and anti-democratic. The nations like Bangalis,
Sindhi, Baloch and Pakhtuns who were fighting for the recognition of their own
identity could make little efforts in favor of the emerging ethnic groups.
After 1972, when the futility and erroneousness of the abovementioned
nation building process were established, and the present Pakistan started a
new political course, the federation could have re-organized itself. it was due
to more than a century old militarization of the Punjab which gave rise to the predominance
of Punjabis and Punjabi nationalism in the state apparatus that the
parliamentary politics failed to tackle the issue of multi-ethnicity. In other
words, this dispensation indemocratic politics didn’t resolve the national
question in Pakistan. Accordingly, Seraiki movement in the form of Bahawalpur
SoobaMahaz was co-opted by the government of the time which transformed into
the expanded form to become Seraiki SoobaMahaz.
At fourth place, as the nations which were sympathetic to Seraiki
people, such as Sindhi, Baloch and Pakhtuns, were themselves oppressed
provinces and were striving to obtain their legitimate share in the federation
these couldn’t pay much supportive attention to the Seraiki national
movements—Seraiki being the most prominent then. Nevertheless they welcomed the
initiatives taken to raise the Seraiki issue in the open forums. In short, the
first wave of Seraiki awareness started in seventies with the encouragement of
the political activists of these oppressed provinces such as NAP AND PNP.
Fifth, besides the causes extraneous to the Seraiki region and people,
the road blocks facing the Seraiki movement were and are primarily within the
Seraiki Vasaib. It goes without
saying that norms, behaviors and cultural traits are evolved under the
influence of social, political and historical environment of a society or
national grouping. As Seraikis mostly opted for nonviolence and hence practiced
peaceful coexistence among its various regions or their statehoods. For
instance State of Bahawalpur, Multan, Deragaat. co-existed side by side in
different eras. Due to this, which once would have been an appreciable quality
of the people and rulers, the whole Seraiki vasaib
didn’t come under one rule and thus lacked one single state formation.
That’s probably the reason that political activists belonging to the Seraiki
movement adopted different groupings with divergent positions for the same main
purpose of Seraiki autonomy. As a resultant
the leadership of Seraiki
movement is acutely fragmented and lacks unity and expansion.
Sixth, the economic elite or wealthy and powerful families and
individuals, which generally support and push the agenda of national
aspiration, has not opted to enter the Seraiki movement; instead they prefer to
become the part of the Pakistani elite, notwithstanding the exception of a few.
Overall the activists are very passionate to lead their own little
organizations than becoming a part/worker of an existing political set-up.
Need of the Hour
Despite the difficulties, obstacles and challenges, Seraiki movement
has elapsed a significant distance towards its goals. All it lacks is the
organizational quality among its rank and file, a political maturity to
withstand the challenges in running an organization and democratic attitude in
dealing with the affairs of a political movement. In nutshell, common people
want to see the unity among the various political parties of Seraiki populace.
SNC takes this challenge and wants to create a system and modus operandi under
which Seraiki movement will gain strength and profile.
Objectives
1.
Providing a forum for debates and discussions on the issues relevant to
the advancement of Seraiki political movement and its organizations.
2.
Playing the role of consensus building platform on issues and action
plans among the various sections of Seraiki activists as well as among various
Seraiki organizations.
3.
Acting as a forum for organizing factors essential for land &
agricultural reforms, law & judicial reforms, education, health and election
reforms and so many others.
4.
Facilitating the launch of joint actions to take forward the Seraiki
national movement.
5.
Creating a permanent structure for holding All nationalist Parties
Conferences (ANPC) for developing a collective response to the issues and
challenges facing the movement.
6.
Developing positions and stands on various sectors and political /
social aspects, such as water, agriculture, infrastructure, basic facilities,
extremism, and foreign policy issues, and demographic controls etc. etc. The wording
the contents of such positions would be agreed by all the participant parties
and they would endorse the final version.
7.
Clarifying and expounding various concepts such as ‘inter-nation
relations and social progress’, ‘administrative, ‘linguistic’, ‘national
democracy’, ‘national question’, ‘national movement’, ‘nationalism’,
‘federalism’, ‘multinational/nation-state’, ‘provincial autonomy’, etc. etc.
8.
Countering the propaganda and other methods of creating confusions
about Seraiki movement and its objectives that is generally carried out by
hostile forces.
9.
Promoting a culture of friendship and accommodation among various
social and political groupings of the movement.
Seraiki National Congress
Mansoor Karim Seyal,
Midcity, Seyal Arcade.
Sher shah road, Multan.
Tell: 03007388711
