HYDERABAD: Leftist and nationalist political leaders and intellectuals paid tribute to veteran Pakistan Peoples Party leader and staunch communist, Jam Saqi, at a ceremony held at the press club on Friday evening to mark his 70th birthday.

Mr Saqi said in his speech that communists were struggling for a classless society for the collective good of all members of the community. During Gen Zial Haq’s regime, a powerful organisation had him picked up but he told the officials during his incarceration that he had embraced socialism as a social duty and for the sake of people, he said.

He said that a person who did not recognise national rights was not a true communist.

Agriculture was an invention of women but later men occupied it and adorned women with jewellery as a sort of compensation.

In many developed countries women had cast off that jewellery to play an important role in national development, he said.

Scholar Imdad Chandio said that Saqi might have retired from practical politics but he still stuck to his thoughts. Saqi was undoubtedly a leader of the nation even this day, he said.

He said that he had rendered sacrifices for the movement but today people’s democratic rights were not honoured and terrorism was on the rise.

Man could grow old but his notions and ideas could never be old, he said.

Journalist Suhail Sangi said that Saqi was a tireless leader and no struggle had been able to fail him. He knew the art of understanding people. He had never left his friends but many friends had deserted him over time, he said.

Former secretary general of the Jamhoori Watan Party, Rauf Khan Sasoli, said that Saqi was a great leader who made earnest efforts for the establishment of a just society. People could learn much from Saqi’s life, he added.

Comrade Wahab Pandhrani said that he had seen Saqi’s picture among a group photo of communist leaders in Russia. He was a great leader but was equally humble and compassionate to people, he said.

PPP leader Amanullah Siyal, senior journalists Ali Hassan, Lala Rehman Samoon, Rasheed Rajar, Ishaq Mangrio, Sindh Taraqqi-pasand Mallah Tanzeem leader Arab Mallah, Saqi’s daughter Dr Bakhtawar and his son comrade Sarang Jan, veteran politician Nisar Memon and advocate Fazal Qadir Memon also attended the birthday ceremony where a documentary on the life of Saqi was also screened.

Published in Dawn, November 1st, 2014