Congressional Sindh Caucus

Mission: The Congressional Sindh Caucus is a group of Members interested in raising awareness about Sindhis in Pakistan and Sindhi-Americans. The Caucus focuses on issues of importance to the Sindhi community in Pakistan, including human rights abuses in and near the Sindh Province and the preservation of Sindhi language and culture.

Chair: Representative Brad Sherman (CA-30) 

Members: Representatives Adam Schiff (CA-28), Carolyn Maloney (NY-12), Jamie Raskin (MD-08), Paul Gosar, D.D.S (AZ-04), Eleanor H. Norton (DC), Sanford D. Bishop, Jr. (GA-2), André Carson (IN-7), Ann Wagner (MO-2), Pete Olson (TX-22), Randy Weber (TX-14), Lizzie Fletcher (TX-7), Thomas Suozzi (NY-3), David Trone (MD-06).

Issues: 

• Congressman Sherman sends a letter to Ambassador Brownback on Religious Freedom, July 19, 2018
• Congressman Sherman asks Secretary of State Mike Pompeo about Sindh issues, May 23, 2018 
• Congressman Sherman Condemns Assault on Families of Disappeared Persons during Hunger-Strike in Sindh, Pakistan, May 21, 2018
• Enforced Disappearances in Sindh, Huffington Post op-ed on World Human Rights Day, December 8, 2017 
• Congressman Sherman’s Remarks on the Floor of the House, October 12, 2017
• Congressman Sherman Sends letter Expressing Strong Concerns about Human Rights in Sindh
• Letter from 7 Members of Congress (4 Democrats and 3 Republicans) on Human Rights in Sindh, August 2017

Issues Archive (issues from 2010-2016)

About Sindh and Sindhis (click here to read a complete report about Sindh and Sindhis):

Sindh is one of Pakistan's four provinces, accounting for roughly one-fifth to one-quarter of the country's population in less than 18% of its land area. Pakistan’s 2017 census recorded Sindh’s population to be 47 million, or about 22% of Pakistan’s population. Its provincial capital, Karachi, with a population of about 16 million, is among the world's largest megacities; it is a major financial and economic center, and also the site of significant sectarian, ethnic, and political violence.

Pakistan's 1971 bifurcation into two states left a "rump" (West) Pakistan dominated both politically and demographically by Punjabis but containing other major ethnonationalist communities: Sindhis, Mohajirs, Pashtuns, and Baloch. Increased Punjabi dominance elicited considerable resentment among the country's ethnic minorities.

Sindh historically has possessed many of the trappings of a modern nation-state. Yet it exists in a circumstance wherein its autonomy (and that of Pakistan’s other “minority provinces”) is significantly restrained by a politically and demographically dominant Punjabi province and ethnicity. Sindh thus operates in a seemingly permanent state of disadvantage and is seen by some to be unlikely to meet its full social and economic potential in the absence of major qualitative changes to the Pakistani state.