Cost of illegal aliens

By Manzoor Chandio

March 9, 2009

Legislators are expected to defend the rights of people from whom they get votes. Unfortunately, this is not the case in Sindh.

Lawmakers' utter ignorance on everything aside, but defending three million illegal immigrants at the cost of tax payers shows how insensitive are they about the rights of their own people.

Recently MPA Syeda Marvi Rashdi went on saying “discrimination was rife, especially against Bengali aliens, and it was the government's responsibility to protect their rights as they were human beings after all.”

Why she's not so much concerned about the human rights of her own voters? Perhaps she doesn't know their problems.

Sindh's James Bond Home Minister says they do not have sufficient funds to expatriate these aliens and that it was essentially a subject under the jurisdiction of the federal government.

Does he know by expatriating three million illegal immigrants, the Sindh government can save hundreds of megawatts power, thousands of gallons water and several tones of atta daily?Affluent Western countries are working on many plans to expatriate illegal immigrants from their countries, because of resource crunch.

Three million illegal aliens in Sindh are not only burden on resources but involved in street crimes, power theft, unhygienic selling of sugar cane juices, cigarettes, gutka, mainpuri and rotten fish.

Many Bangladeshis have adopted fishing along the Sindh coast at the cost of local fishermen. Afghans have been found involved in selling drugs and weapons.

Karachi, where most of the illegal aliens are living, is a city with inadequate urban services like health, water supply, electricity, sanitation, drainage and solid waste management.

The city is prone to daily snatching of hundreds of cell phones and hijacking of dozens of vehicles.

The country imports wheat to fulfill the needs of eating mouths. When there is shortage of atta the commodity is sold on exorbitant rates. Karachi also faces an acute shortage of power.

Illegal immigrants not only use hundreds of megawatt power but also indulge in pilferage.

They have encroached upon pavements in many areas and using electricity with the connivance of KESC officials. Sindh faces manifold problems because of illegal influx of people and misplaced attempts of making it an international orphanage of Muslims displaced anywhere on the globe. While the fact is that local people themselves are reeling from illiteracy and poverty.

In the past, even Rohingya Muslims suffering oppression in Burma and Karan fighters from Thailand turned up on Karachi coastline and staying illegally in different areas of the city.

The Sindh government should impose penalties on Karachi industrialists for providing jobs to illegal immigrants.

Factory owners in Karachi's five industrial estates should be reminded that they had set up their businesses on lands obtained from the Sindh government.

What people crave from the PPP government now is making policies that protect their daily lives from power crisis, lack of water and medicines. People want action that reaches decisions quickly.

The government should be able to fix the current power crisis. The Sindh government today is required to show strong initiative to expatriate illegal immigrants.

We also do not understand why the PPP government is reluctant in putting together its manifesto of providing roti, kapra and makan to own people.

Sindhi legislators need to understand this clearly that their first responsibility is to protect Sindh's interests and provide power, gas, water, civic facilities, employment and peace to people from whom they have gotten votes.

manzoorchandio@hotmail.com