To the Secretary-General of the United Nations, the UN Security Council (UNSC), the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), International Financial Institutions (IMF & World Bank), Global Think Tanks, Foreign Ministers, Democratic Governments, and the Conscience of the International Community:
Subject: A Comprehensive Appeal for the Protection of Sindh’s Territorial Integrity, Rejection of Internal Colonial Division, Cessation of Financial Siphoning for State Corruption, and the Exercise of the Right to Self-Determination Through a UN-Supervised Referendum for an Independent Sindhudesh.
Excellencies, Distinguished World Leaders, Diplomats, and Members of the International Community, and World Thinktanks.
We address you on behalf of the Sindhi Nation, heirs to the thousand-year-old Indus Valley Civilisation, as the indigenous inhabitants of Sindh and through the voice of the Global Sindhi Diaspora. We present a grave, historic, and urgent matter concerning our national existence, territorial integrity, economic sovereignty, and basic right to self-determination.
Sindh is not an administrative artifact or an artificially carved provincial boundary; it is an ancient, historically defined homeland of South Asia. Throughout history, our civilisation nurtured the universal principles of humanism, secularism, pluralism, and peaceful coexistence. Today, however, the Sindhi nation faces an existential crisis driven by centralist state policies, state-facilitated demographic engineering, environmental aggression, and systemic attempts to partition our historic homeland.
I. Historical Context and the Reality of Internal Colonialism
Following the British military invasion led by Mr. Charles Napier in 1843, Sindh lost its sovereign political independence and was forcibly integrated into British India. When colonial rule ended in 1947, the geopolitical framework that created Pakistan failed to construct a voluntary, equal partnership among historically distinct nations. Instead, political, economic, and military power was centralized within a state structure dominated by Punjab and the military establishment.
Over the past seven decades, this arrangement degenerated into an internal colonial framework. Under this system, the Sindhi nation has been subjected to political disenfranchisement, systematic economic extraction, cultural marginalization, and the erosion of its sovereign rights over its land, natural resources, and historical river.
II. The Red Line: Rejection of Plans to Fragment Sindh’s Territorial Integrity
The most immediate and critical threat currently facing the Sindhi nation is the political strategy to divide and fragment Sindh under the pretext of “administrative reorganization” or the creation of “new provinces.”
We present our unequivocal objections before the international community:
Undividability of the Historical Homeland: Sindh’s geography, coastline, offshore islands, and territory form an interconnected historical homeland. Any attempt to slice away Karachi, the coastal belt, or any portion of Sindh to create new administrative or ethno-political entities is a direct assault on the national existence of the Sindhi people.
State-Facilitated Demographic Transformation: Decades of unmanaged and state-directed internal and cross-border migration have fundamentally altered the demographic balance of major Sindhi urban centers, particularly Karachi and Hyderabad. This demographic engineering aims to reduce the Historic Sindhi nation to a political minority within its own historic territory.
Violation of Indigenous Rights Frameworks: Under the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Historic Nation (UNDRIP Articles 3, 4, 10, and 26), any territorial alteration or administrative redrawing without the Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) of the Historic Sindhi nation constitutes a blatant violation of international law.
III. Financial Exploitation & Siphoning of IMF/World Bank Loans for State Corruption
We draw the attention of the international community and global financial institutions to the economic structure imposed upon Sindh:
Siphoning Foreign Loans for Military Corruption: The Pakistani state and its ruling Punjabi elite and Punjabi military establishment regularly secure billions of dollars in foreign loans from International Financial Institutions (IMF, World Bank, ADB). These funds are routinely siphoned off into state corruption, in the name of defense expenditures, debt servicing for non-productive military ventures, and weapons procurement rather than public welfare.
Extraction of Debt Repayment from Sindh: The financial burden of these corrupt loans is systematically shifted onto the Sindhi nation. Over 70% of the federal tax revenues, maritime customs, port revenues (Karachi Port and Port Qasim), and energy wealth (Thar Coal, oil, and natural gas) extracted from Sindh are used to repay foreign debts incurred by a corrupt central structure.
Accountability of Financial Institutions: We appeal to the IMF and the World Bank to enforce strict human rights and anti-corruption conditions, ensuring that international loans are not underwritten by the economic exploitation of the Sindhi nation.
IV. Land Grabbing, Island Usurpation, and Encroachment
Corporate and Military Land Grab: Through federal ordinances, special authorities, and mega-development frameworks, vast tracts of Sindh’s agricultural land, deltaic zones, and historical forests are being transferred to military-backed corporate enterprises and foreign entities.
Usurpation of Coastal Islands: Strategic offshore islands—including Dinghy and Bhatear—are being unlawfully seized under central authority frameworks, violating the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and forcibly displacing indigenous fishing communities who have inhabited these coastlines for millennia.
V. Ecological Aggression on the Indus River & Delta Destruction
Lower Riparian Rights: The Indus River is the vital lifeblood of Sindhi civilization. Despite historical treaties (such as the 1945 Agreement) and domestic accords (the 1991 Water Accord) guaranteeing freshwater flows, upstream diversions, illegal canals, and dam projects continue to starve Sindh of its rightful water share.
Ecological Catastrophe in the Delta: Denying freshwater flows below the Kotri Barrage has resulted in massive seawater intrusion, submerging millions of acres of fertile agricultural land, destroying mangrove ecosystems, and eliminating the livelihoods of local farmers and fishermen in direct violation of the 1997 UN Watercourses Convention.
VI. Systemic Human Rights Abuses & State-Sponsored Radicalization
Enforced Disappearances & Extrajudicial Killings: Sindhi political activists, intellectuals, students, journalists, and human rights defenders advocating for resource rights and national self-determination face systematic state repression, including enforced disappearances, arbitrary detentions, and extrajudicial executions.
Erosion of Secular Identity: To counter Sindh’s historically secular, tolerant, and Sufi-oriented culture, state apparatuses have deliberately facilitated networks of religious extremism to suppress the modern, progressive, and scientific national movement of Sindh.
We harbor deep concerns that the unnatural state of Pakistan, which, since the very first day of its inception, has not only patronized religious extremism and terrorism within the region but has also been directly responsible for spreading this extremist violence into neighboring countries, continues to threaten international stability.
The world community must not forget that Pakistan has persistently orchestrated subversions against India, Afghanistan, and Iran, maintaining a state of perpetual tension in the region. At present, we are gravely concerned that the defense agreements forged between Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Türkiye will further embolden Pakistan. Utilizing Saudi financial and oil resources, Turkish drone technology, and Chinese satellite intelligence alongside other strategic assets, Pakistan will not only expand religious extremism and terrorism against India, Afghanistan, Iran, and other regional nations, but will also intensify its aggressive subversions against them. This will severely disrupt regional peace, political stability, and economic activities.
Consequently, Pakistan is not only accelerating its conspiracies against the national existence and territorial integrity of Sindh, but its strategic defense agreements with Saudi Arabia and Türkiye will embolden it to act as an unchecked, rogue bully across the entire region.
VII. Geopolitical Value of an Independent, Sovereign Sindhudesh
We submit to global diplomats, security analysts, and international think tanks that:
Maritime & Regional Security: The Arabian Sea coastline is a critical maritime transit zone for global commerce. A state structure prone to instability, corruption, and extremism poses a constant risk to Indian Ocean security.
A Pillar of Global Peace: An independent, secular, democratic, and progressive Republic of Sindhudesh will serve as a stabilizing force in South Asia, guaranteeing international maritime trade routes, rejecting religious extremism, and fostering peace across the Indian Ocean region.
VIII. Charter of Demands to the United Nations and International Community
Invoking the fundamental Right of Peoples to Self-Determination as enshrined in the UN Charter and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the Sindhi Nation presents the following demands:
Halt the Partition of Sindh: We urge the United Nations, democratic governments, and international diplomatic bodies to exert pressure on the Pakistani state to immediately halt all overt and covert strategies aimed at partitioning Sindh, creating “new provinces,” or altering its historical boundaries.
UN-Supervised Referendum for Sindhudesh: We call upon the UN Security Council and the UN General Assembly to organize, supervise, and monitor a free, fair, and democratic Referendum in Sindh. This referendum must allow the indigenous Sindhi people to exercise their right to self-determination and vote on their political future, including the option for an independent, sovereign Republic of Sindhudesh.
3. UN Fact-Finding Mission: We urgently request the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples to dispatch an independent, high-level Fact-Finding Mission to Sindh. This mission must thoroughly investigate the grave and systemic crises facing the region, including enforced disappearances, state-sponsored demographic engineering, and military land-grabbing and occupation. Furthermore, it should examine the unlawful diversion of the Indus River waters by Punjab in direct violation of the historic 1945 Water Agreement, the ruthless plundering of Sindh’s rich mineral resources, and the transformation of Sindh into a modern-day colony subjected to political repression and economic exploitation. The mission must also address the systematic suppression and erosion of the Sindhi language, education, history, and culture within Pakistan, as well as the severe environmental degradation devastating the region.
Conditionality on Foreign Aid: International Financial Institutions (IMF and World Bank) must cease enabling state corruption by conditioning all financial assistance on the protection of indigenous rights, resource sovereignty, and human rights standards in Sindh.
A DIRECT APPEAL TO GLOBAL CONSCIENCE
The survival of Sindh is inextricably linked to the survival of the Sindhi nation and its ancient civilisational heritage. The international community cannot and must not remain silent while our land, water, natural resources, and historical territorial integrity are systematically dismantled under internal colonialism.
We appeal to the global conscience, international institutions, and democratic nations:
Protect the territorial integrity of Sindh.
End internal colonial extraction and military land-grabbing.
Support a UN-supervised referendum for the independence of Sindhudesh.
Let the people of Sindh decide their own destiny.
The Sindhi Nation
Representatives of the Sindhudesh National Movement
Global Sindhi Diaspora
Shafi Burfat
Chairman, Jeay Sindh Muttahida Mahaz (JSMM)