LARKANA: Speakers at a seminar on “The role of Shah Mardan Shah in politics” held to mark the 6th death anniversary of Pir Pagaro on Wednesday said that Pir sahib’s was a politics of decency and honesty and unlike traditional Pirs he always laid stress on girls’ education and a woman’s right to have husband of her choice.

Pakistan Muslim League-Func­tional (PML-F) lawmaker Mehtab Akbar Rashdi said at the seminar at Abdul Latif Nizamani labour hall that Shah Mardan Shah had always emphasised and encouraged girls’ education and asked parents not to feel reluctant in contracting marriages outside their families and communities.

She said that Pir Pagaro always abided by laws and improved his moral standing among his peers by his politics of honesty and decency. He survived the long mental torture of exile in young age and proved his farsightedness and political acumen on his return, she said.

She said that it was Pir Pagaro who established the role of Hurs (disciples of Pir sahib) in the party and successfully contained negative trends. He also strengthened them economically, she said. She called for maintaining the importance of Hurs’ vote bank and said that time had arrived for people to hold rulers by the neck and demand their rights. Instead of standing before them with folded hands begging for jobs, people should snatch their rights after enabling themselves to meet requisite criteria for jobs, she said. She stressed the need for education in securing rights and said change would come only through arming people with education. People of Sindh would never compromise on their land, water and language, she said. She said that democracy did not revolve around one person, it was interlinked with people. “We have experienced massive damage in the politics of families,” she said.

She said that Sindh was passing through a critical phase. Money and power always proved short-lived and elusive when nature tightened noose round one’s neck. Only politics of decency would prevail now, she predicted.

Syed Akbar Shah Rashdi, divisional organiser of PML-F, alleged theft of votes and ballot boxes in election and urged people to give his party a chance to serve them. “We hate bad politics, as we strictly follow our leader,” he said, adding that Pir Pagaro’s disciples were their voters. He said that it was Pir Pagaro who introduced politics of decency and honesty in the country. Soriah Badshah fought and laid down his life for the soil while Pir Pagaro did politics for the people of Sindh, he said. He said that Pir Pagaro and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto were contemporaries and the former had introduced him to power corridors but at a later stage Bhutto underwent a change after capturing power.

He said that there was no full-stop in the generosity and magnanimity of Pir Pagaro who always urged parents to seek girls’ willingness before their marriages.

Published in Dawn, January 11th, 2018