Whenever there is talk of creating new provinces or administrative units, the Pakistan Peoples Party rolls up its sleeves. Why? Is it love for Sindh, or love for the financial possibilities Sindh has acquired after the 18th Amendment?

The PPP’s problem is hardly a secret. It is a party of a fading era. Urbanisation and the PPP cannot go together. The party is steadily shrinking into remote rural areas. It may call itself democratic and progressive, but its real power still rests on the feudal order, which is slowly dying its natural death. The party has virtually disappeared from urban Sindh. As awareness grows, its style of politics increasingly belongs to the past. Today, it survives largely through feudal influence in traditional rural constituencies.

Asif Zardari understood this reality in time. He built a financial fortress around his increasingly limited political space in Sindh, and the fortress was called the 18th Amendment. The logic was simple: if there was little room left for power at the centre, then Sindh’s financial interests had to be protected in the name of provincial autonomy.

New provinces or empowered administrative units create a breach in that fortress. That is why they are resisted. This is not love for Sindh. It is love for the financial arrangement built in Sindh’s name. If it were really love for Sindh, Sindh would not be in this condition.

In the last 16 years, Sindh has received nearly Rs. 17 trillion from the federal government through the NFC Awards. Let us leave the technical details aside and ask a simple question: where did the money go?

What major development has transformed Sindh? What great public achievement can be pointed to? Name two or four.

The money reaching Karachi from the federation was visible to everyone. Where did it disappear afterwards? How many first-class hospitals were built? How many quality educational institutions were established? And did Karachi receive its fair share?

What a remarkable achievement: thousands of billions have been received, yet Karachi still struggles for drinking water. Even a major road cannot be completed; some have remained dug up for years.

There is a familiar story about Mulla Nasruddin. He brought home two kilograms of meat and asked his wife to cook it. She cooked it, ate it herself, and served him lentils and vegetables. When he asked about the meat, she said the cat had eaten it.

Mulla Nasruddin caught the cat and put it on the scales. It weighed........

© The Patriot