During her intervention at the 63rd session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Hafeezan Wadhio highlighted escalating international concerns regarding the rights of the indigenous people of Sindh.

Speaking on behalf of the World Sindhi Congress, where she serves as an executive committee member, she urged global human rights mechanisms to intervene before the ongoing political crisis worsens further.

She expressed serious apprehension over renewed state proposals aimed at creating additional provinces or administrative divisions within the region, warning that such measures would fragment Sindh's historically recognised territory.

Though no formal constitutional amendment to partition the province has been enacted yet, Wadhio stressed that the situation requires immediate preventive international attention to forestall irreversible damage to the region's socio-political fabric.

Delving into historical precedents, the activist noted that Karachi was detached from provincial administration shortly after the formation of Pakistan, drastically altering the region's governance dynamics.

She further pointed out that during the implementation of the controversial One Unit scheme, Sindh was stripped of its administrative autonomy and governed merely as a sub-province for fifteen years.

These historical grievances regarding territorial encroachment are currently compounded by widespread human rights violations perpetrated against the Sindhi population across various administrative sectors.

For an indigenous historical community, land rights, cultural identity, political representation, and local ownership over natural resources are deeply interconnected and cannot be separated from one another.

Every section of the Sindhi population has unanimously rejected any proposal or policy aimed at dividing or re-delineating their ancestral homeland.

Any structural attempt to fragment the territory would severely compromise the Sindhi people's fundamental rights to political participation, self-determination, and long-term cultural survival.

She called upon the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and associated special procedures to maintain strict monitoring over all executive actions altering Sindh's territorial status.

The representative urged the global body to examine how these geographical re-alignments directly threaten human rights, political inclusion, and environmental equity across the region.

The intervention followed the comprehensive Sindh Conference 2026 convened in Geneva by the World Sindhi Congress to address critical issues including resource distribution and arbitrary land acquisitions.

Scholars at the forum highlighted how vast tracts of agricultural land are being expropriated for commercial initiatives and mega corporate farming ventures, directly endangering local food security.

Delegates raised severe concerns regarding environmental justice and water allocation, particularly the diversion of the Indus River waters through newly proposed canal schemes that jeopardize downstream communities.

Experts cited reports indicating that severe downstream flow reductions have led to massive seawater intrusion, damaging nearly 12 lakh acres of fertile agricultural land along the Indus Delta.

Human rights activists further called attention to financial disparities, pointing out that resource allocation models under the National Finance Commission fail to properly compensate the region's tax contributions.

Beyond economic challenges, activists at the UN gathering detailed persistent security concerns, including allegations of enforced disappearances, extrajudicial actions, and targeted intimidation of civil society members.

Community advocates also reiterated calls for robust international mechanisms to safeguard vulnerable religious minorities, uphold democratic norms, and protect women and children from gender-based abuse.

The delegation emphasised that international scrutiny remains essential to ensure that developmental projects and administrative realignments do not violate fundamental rights or undermine the rule of law.

The World Sindhi Congress reaffirmed its ongoing commitment to advocating for the democratic rights, cultural preservation, and environmental security of the Sindhi people through peaceful diplomatic channels worldwide.

ANI