DADU: Sindh United Party and nine other nationalist parties splintered from of the original ‘Jeay Sindh’ movement founded by G.M. Syed over four decades ago held separate programmes around their leader’s grave to mark his 114th birth anniversary in Sann town on Wednesday.

G.M. Syed’s grandson SUP chairman Syed Jalal Mehmood Shah cut a cake at the main programme organised by his party and family members at Syed’s bungalow on the Indus river’s embankment.

The programme was also attended by a number of leaders of various political parties who participated in the anniversary on the invitation of SUP chief.

Mr Shah asserted at the gathering that Pakistan was formed by their elders and rejected outright the impression that nationalist leaders were against the state and the country.

“We are patriotic and we love our people and land as much as others do but we only desire that provinces should be given complete autonomy,” he said.

He contended that if provinces were strong then the federation would be stronger because Pakistan was a country inhabited by several communities and it required to be run under a real federation.

He demanded elimination of terrorism being committed in the name of religion and said extremists were a danger to the state and public.

Syed sahib had always said that for a state to get strong religion and politics would have to be separated, he said.

He demanded that the federal and provincial governments should shut down all unregistered madaressahs in Sindh and said the SUP would not accept the census as it had shown Sindhis in a minority. Corruption had spread through the system like a cancer, rendering all departments dysfunctional, he said.

Federal Minister for Ports and Shipping Mir Hasil Khan Bizenjo said that Sindhi and Baloch elders had joined the federation for the stability of the country. G.M. Syed was a great scholar and politician, he said.

PML-N MNA Syed Zaffar Ali Shah, MPA Shafi Mohammad Jamote, Awami Jamhoori Party chairman Ibrar Kazi, Awami Tehreek vice president Qadir Ranto, Siraiki Qaumi Movement president Dr Nukhbah Taj Langah and chairman of Malir union council Khuda Dino Shah also addressed the gathering.

Before the conclusion of the programme, the gathering passed a number of resolutions, demanding rights for different communities under 1940 Resolution, separation of religion from state affairs, political and religious freedom for all citizens, action against all corrupt politicians and bureaucrats, fixation of sugar cane price at Rs182 per 40 kilogramme, action against mill owners for refusing to purchase cane from growers and action against police officers who were arresting and harassing SUP activists.

Earlier, a Sufi musical programme was organised and Syed’s family members and SUP activists led by Syed Jalal Mehmood Shah and other party leaders offered fateha and laid wreaths on Syed’s grave.

The nine factions of ‘Jeay Sindh’ held their programmes separately at different places around Syed’s grave and cut birthday cakes.

Heads of Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz-Bashir (JSQM), Jeay Sindh Mahaz-Riaz, Jeay Sindh Tehreek-Karnani, JSQM-Arisar, Jeay Sindh Liberal Front, Jeay Sindh Qaum Parsat Party and Jeay Sindh Inqalabi Mahaz said at their programmes that people of Sindh were passing through a difficult phase.

They said that Syed created awareness among sons of the soil about their rights and taught them to live with peace and harmony.

If people had followed Syed’s teachings, Sindh would have been prosperous today, they said.

Jeay Sindh Tehreek-Sarki chairman Dr Safdar Sarki and Jeay Sindh Muttahida Mahaz chief Shafi Mohammad Burfat addressed their parties’ gatherings through video link from abroad and appealed to all international organisations to support their struggle for Sindh.

Published in Dawn, January 18th, 2018