The man from Roojhan: Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali

MIR ZAFARULLAH Khan Jamali, the PML-Q nominee for the prime ministership, was born on Jan 1, 1944, in a small village Roojhan Jamali of Balochistan’s Nasirabad division into a Baloch political family of Mir Jaffar Khan Jamali, a close friend of Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah. His father Mir Shahnawaz Khan Jamali was not directly involved in active politics, but he was a jirga member and landlord of the area.

Zafarullah Khan Jamali started his schooling from his native village, but soon his father sent him to Lawrence Collage Ghora Gali Murree from where he did his O level and A level in early 60s. Then he joined Government College Lahore for graduation. Later he did his Master in History from Punjab University.

During school and college days, he was a very good player of hockey. He also remained captain of the hockey team of university.

As a sportsman, he continued efforts for the promotion of hockey in the country and twice was appointed as chief selector of the Pakistan hockey team. It was under his supervision that Pakistan won the Atlanta Olympic’s title. He is still serving as president of the Balochistan Hockey Association.

During his college days in Lahore, Jamali first time entered in country’s active politics in 1964 supporting Ms Fatima Jinnah against the then military ruler, Field Martial Mohammad Ayub Khan, in the presidential election. His uncle Jaffar Khan Jamali appointed him as a security guard of Fatima Jinnah.

He was arrested in Lahore, along with the other political leaders who were supporting Ms Jinnah in the election, on the orders of the then governor of West Pakistan for taking part in the anti-government rallies and protest processions.

Later his elders advised him to give attention to education instead of politics. But in 1967 after the death of his uncle Mir Jafar Khan Jamali, he decided to take up politics seriously. However, he did not join any party though his family’s other elders were in the Pakistan Muslim League.

In 1970 when the then military president Gen Yahya Khan gave Balochistan the status of a province and conducted first parliamentary election in the country, Jamali contested for a provincial assembly seat from his native constituency as an independent candidate. He could not win the seat against a powerful Sardar Chakar Khan Domki, the son-in-law of Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, due to various reasons.

After losing the election, he remained inactive in the politics, but after some time he joined the Pakistan People’s Party and contested the 1977 election from the same constituency and elected unopposed to the Balochistan Assembly. Later, he was inducted in the PPP-lead provincial government as minister for information and food.

But when the PPP government was ousted on July 5, 1977, Jamali quit the party and on the offer of military ruler Gen Ziaul Haq joined the cabinet as minister of state for food and agriculture in 1982. Later, Gen Zia appointed him as minister for local government.

In the 1985’s non-party based elections conducted by Zia, he contested for a National Assembly seat from Balochistan and elected unopposed from his native constituency.

After the election Jamali was one of the candidate for the prime ministership. Political observers were of the view that Gen Zia would appoint him as premier, but at the eleventh hour the military ruler appointed Mohammad Khan Jonejo as prime minister of Pakistan and inducted Jamali in the federal cabinet as minister for water and power.

After the dismissal of Jonejo’s government, Zia included Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali in the caretaker cabinet as railways minister for a very short time and then appointed him as the caretaker chief minister of Balochistan. He contested the 1988 election for the national and provincial assemblies and won both the seats.

In December 1988, he was elected as the Balochistan chief minister with one vote majority. The vote was cast by the then speaker Sardar Mohammad Khan Barozai in his favour.

But his government could not complete even one month and the Balochistan Assembly was dissolved. When the assembly was restored by the Balochistan High Court after Anwar Durrani of the Balochistan National Alliance had challenged the dissolution of the assembly, a new coalition government was formed by the alliance headed by Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti.

In the 1990 elections, Zafarullah Khan Jamali was a candidate of the Islami Jamhoori Ittihad, but he could not succeed against Mir Nabi Bukhsh Khosa of the PPP. In 1991 the Nawaz government sent him as the Pakistan’s representative to the United Nation.

But once again Jamali was elected to the National Assembly in the 1993 polls as an independent candidate defeating PPP’s candidate Mir Nabi Bukhsh Khosa. In 1996 when the Benazir government was dismissed by Sardar Farooq Ahmed Khan Laghari, Zafarullah Jamali was sent to Balochistan as the caretaker chief minister, the second time.

He could not participate in the 1997 election as the government had barred the caretaker ministers and chief ministers from contesting the polls. However, Jamali was elected to the cabinet while his son Mir Fareedullah Khan Jamali to the National Assembly.

In the Oct 10 election, he contested for the National Assembly and defeated PPP candidate Munawar Ali Khosa in the run.

This time the PML-Q has nominated him as its candidate for the top slot of the government.

A brother of Jamali, Mir Abdul Rahman Jamali, who remained senator in the past, has also been elected to the PA from his home constituency.

Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali has five children: one daughter and four sons. Two of his sons are serving in the Pakistan Army while two others are doing local politics and zamindari.

Jamali is known as a good administrator. People of his tribe and other tribes refer their disputes to him for settlement and always accept his decisions. He is also known as Jabal Khan ( Jabal means mountain in Balochi language). His uncle Mir Jaffar Khan Jamali gave him this name as during school days he used to receive serious wounds but did not cry.

In his family life, he is a good father who gives full attention to the education of his children including the daughter.

He prepared his two sons Shahnawaz and Javed for joining the army. He groomed his elder son for politics.

P.K. Shahani: committed to public service: OBITUARY

PREM Shahani belonged to one of the most notable families of Sindh. The Shahani family was prominent in the councils of the Talpur rulers. They kept up the tradition of public service during the British period as well. His grandfather Dayaram Gidumal was one of the most distinguished citizens and philanthropists of Sindh. It was the Shahani family which was mainly responsible for building the Dayaram Jethmull (DJ) College in Karachi, the DG National College of Hyderabad, and the Metharam Hostel for DJ College and the students hostel for NED College. His father bought and presented the Pakistan Chowk area to the city and performed many more charitable and philanthropic acts.

P.K. Shahani, as he was popularly known, was himself deeply committed to public service. Trained as a chartered surveyor and valuer he had reached the top of his profession. He was also deeply respected for his abilities in this field. But in keeping with his family tradition he gave much of his time to public life.

He came into public prominence during the first PPP government when he was a member of National Finance Commission. He served on various expert committees and task forces which were concerned with different aspects of government, on agriculture, finance and education. He had an unrivalled command over the electoral process and was an invaluable though unofficial adviser to different governments of Sindh on these subjects. He also advised the Government of Sindh on flood control. He had an innovative and imaginative mind and could be relied upon to come up with useful solutions to almost any problem that faced the government he was advising.

As a member of the minority community Prem Shahani had to face many difficult situations with regard to his position and properties in the last fifty years but he never allowed any sign of depression or pessimism to appear on his face or in his conversation. He was always very positive about the future of Pakistan and was ready to play his role to improve and enrich social and political life in this country. He was very keen that minorities should not become marginalized but should be a part of the mainstream life of the country contributing their very best to Pakistan. He was a strong supporter of joint electorate as part of this process.

His last valuable contribution was as Member of the President’s National Kashmir Committee where he made much valuable contribution. He accompanied the committee chairman, Sardar Abdul Qayyum, to Washington and to the United Nations in New York. Here his contribution was so impressive that he was especially invited by the OIC group at the UN to give a presentation to them on the Kashmir situation. He wanted that Pakistan should become signatory to the UN Charter on Human Rights and was sure that this would help Pakistan’s case on Kashmir enormously.

Prem Shahani’s premature death is a national loss. He has left a gap which will be hard to fill.

Sachal — an architect of Sindh’s Sufic temperament

SACHAL Sarmast, the Sufi poet of Sindh, was born in 1739. It was a turbulent time for Sindh. It was the year when Nadir Shah invaded Sachal’s land, followed by Ahmed Shah Abdali’s attack in 1743. And, by the time Shah Shujah, the grandson of Nadir Shah, invaded Sindh in the later half of 18th century, Sachal had, by then, become Sarmast (intoxicated under Divine love) and a great poet.

The aggressors were at variance with the Sufi culture of Sindh, which sparked an ideological war between the adherents of the two philosophies. The Sufi culture had taken roots over the years through sheer efforts of such poets as Shah, Sachal and Sa’ami, Shah Karim of Bulri and Rohal Fakir.

Of this clash of philosophies, Sachal says: “If I remain silent, it amounts to committing a sin; and if I speak, I become an infidel.”

Shah Bhitai, belonging to the same period, seems to be in full agreement with Sachal when he says: “Having truth in possession, one feels ashamed to offer it.”

The social environment of that time was so much steeped in falsehood that to speak the truth had become a shameful act.

Sachal has emerged as the greatest saint-poet of Sindh after Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai (1689-1752), who is quoted as having said about Sachal: “He will lift the lid of the cooking pot we have set on fire.”

Sachal, a blunt and brave crusader, decided to defy the culture of falsehood and adopted the nickname of Sachoo, Sachal and Sachedino, all derived from ‘truthfulness’.

Thus, mysticism of Sachal was a clear-cut anti-thesis of the religious bigotry prevalent during the first half of the 17th Century.

As a matter of fact, Sachal and other great Sufis of Sindh believed in pragmatic approach to religion, recognizing the oneness of God, with His manifestations encompassing the entire universe. Their divine knowledge was based on proper perception of the Creator and His creation as a manifestation of the Divinity. Such a mystical doctrine restructured the Sufi temperament of Sindh. Sachal says:

“Various creeds have ended up creating confusion for the masses;

Some bend in the mosques to pray and, some in temples bow;

Their rationale could not perceive the (fire of) Love.”

The Sufis concentrated on the anthropocentric concept, considering the Man as the lord on the earth and, the most beautiful manifestation of God in the universe.

“A slave yourself never think;

You’re lord on earth;

To the reality never wink;

In slavery, there is no safety;

In obtaining Divine ecstasy is the life really pretty.”

They respected humanity as a whole, without discrimination of colour, creed and caste. They had love even for every being existing on the earth, which they considered as universal manifestation of the divinity.

“To consider it otherwise is a sin;

Every form is God Himself.”

This is why the charisma of these mystic poets and their message has never diminished in Sindh.

Like every year, this year also, a mass congregation is being held to mark the 180th Urs of Sachal. There will also be a three- day mela — Nov 20 to 22 — during which people from all over Pakistan will gather at Daraza, one kilometre North of Ranipur Town in the Khairpur district, to pay homage to the great memory of the saint-poet.

An important component of this mela is the great variety of music played by folk singers and instrumentalists from Punjab and Sindh.

Sachal Sarmast, like Bhitai and Baba Farid, is a scholarly poet. He is popularly known as a ‘Haft-i-Zaban’ poet, having composed poetry in seven languages: Sindhi, Seraiki, Persian, Urdu, Arabic, Hindi and Punjabi. However, he excelled in Persian, Seraiki and Sindhi poetry. His Persian poetry is contained in nine volumes with Diwan-i-Ashkar being the masterpiece. Among the classical poets of Sindh, Sachal is the only one having composed great poetry in Urdu.

A legend has it that Sachal has, in all, composed 936,936 verses.

Apart from many hand-written manuscripts, the oldest edition of Sachal Jo Risalo was published by a Hindu lady, commonly known as ‘Nimano Fakir’ (buried in the premises of Sachal’s mausoleum), from Baroda (India) in 1952.