Sindh’s Governance Crisis: Patriotism or Political Shield?

Sindh’s Governance Crisis: Patriotism or Political Shield?

Sindh’s Governance Crisis: Patriotism or Political Shield? There​‍​‌‍​‍‌ will be no need to embellish the fact that the PPP-led Sindh provincial government has strongly opposed the creation of any new administrative units. But does this position represent their loyalty and love for Sindh and the people of the province? Or, in fact, it is the old political language aimed at protecting the existing political stronghold, the party hardly cares about improved governance and service delivery.

The party has been accused of a long-standing propaganda campaign where it has used the theme of provincial love to divert the attention of its own shortcomings in Sindh.

Painting the requests for new administrative units as a threat to the Sindh identity, critics feel, has been the approach of the party leadership to take the focus off the institutional weaknesses. They argue that the PPP leadership's nationalistic story helps to retain the traditional power base, whereas the serious problems in the province still go unresolved.

During its rule, Sindh has also come under the charge of corruption at the institutional level, lack of development and decay of public institutions. The fact that children in large numbers remain outside education system and armed riverine gangs are running along highways without effective interference is being mentioned as well. Consequently, critics think that the move of provincialism by politicians to resist the demands for responsible administration has turned into a standard policy and put a heavy price tag on the people suffering from the consequences of misgovernance. Sindh’s Governance Crisis: Patriotism or Political Shield?

The fact that the party's governance in Sindh is still marred by a lack of accountability is one of the most cited arguments. A criticism of such an administration, according to critics, is that public expenditure is growing but development indicators get worse year after year. Though the province gets a couple of billions of rupees through budgeting and federal funding, the cities like Karachi and rural districts of the province face an acute lack of basic infrastructure and services along with law and order.

Political and civil society reports, and media have pointed out the issues of literacy being one of the weak spots, in that it is estimated that a child in 10 is not educated up to matriculation. At the same time, although the education budget has been increasing, schools still lack even electricity in 64 percent and do not have clean water to 42 percent. Millions of children therefore will remain out of the school system as they can’t even have their needs met through basic education at home due to such a situation. The state of sanitation, public utilities and waste management have been among the areas of public concern. Water supply shortages, open drains, and decaying roads, along with other problems, are faced by the villages as well as the cities of Karachi that are the hub of the region. Sindh’s Governance Crisis: Patriotism or Political Shield?

Another area where the party's provincial government has been accused of mismanagement is its attitude towards internal security. The issue of tribal conflicts has led to periodic violence, and armed dacoit (criminal) bands have continued to thrive in the areas bordering the river, like upper Sind, even resorting to the crime of kidnapping to extort ​‍​‌‍​‍‌money.