I remember the room. It was 1991. We were junior engineers on WAPDA induction training, young men from every province, meant to learn the same soils and the same discipline. A senior soil scientist left the subject and judged people. The engineers from Sindh and Balochistan, he said, knew nothing. They are far below those from Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Thirteen junior engineers from Sindh heard themselves dismissed in a federal classroom. The remark broke morale. It also taught a rule that no syllabus contained: in this country, competence can be read from a provincial label.

Then the examinations were held. First position went to Sindh. Third went to Sindh. Many of us believed second should have gone to Sindh as well. It was felt, instead, that someone from Punjab should stand there. Earlier batches showed the same pattern. The claim had been tested. It failed. The sentence did not die.

From 1991 to 2026 I have heard that sentence in Islamabad. Sometimes it is a whisper. Sometimes it is said aloud. People of Sindh are incompetent. They are corrupt. They are Sain Baba. A federal minister of planning, asked in Karachi why motorways were not being built in Sindh, said there is corruption here, and that is why the roads are missing. The National Highway Authority is a federal body. Those roads are federal roads. His answer was not an audit. It was a judgement on a people. I do not pretend Sindh has no problem of corruption. Corruption here has grown, and it must be named. What I refuse is the next step: turning a failure of government into the character of a........

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