KARACHI: Speakers at a programme at the Arts Council on Saturday highlighted the history, culture and quintessential religious harmony in Sindh, which they said had eroded after religious intolerance began to hold sway in the province a few decades ago.

The two-day programme, called the literary and cultural festival, was organised by the Friends of Sindhu Civilisation, which brought together intellectuals discussing key matters related to Sindh, set up bookstalls and invited folk singers to give it a 1001< of an all-encompassing event.

Khadim Hussain Soomro, the key organiser of the event, spoke at length about religious tolerance in Sindh, which was in evidence in its capital, Karachi, during the British Raj when people belonging to all faiths put in their efforts to develop the city and made it an idyllic setting.

So peaceful was the land ofSußsthatonce atagathering of top British officials running its colonies across the globe in the 1930s, a governor of Sindh introduced himself as the one who was running the most peaceful dominion (Sindh), he said.

`And today,` he said wistfully, `Sindh is not even a pale shadow of its illustrious past.`-Staff Reporter