SUKKUR: The very recent marriage of Sardar Mohammad Bux Khan Mahar’s sister with a person not belonging to the community has stirred up a controversy that poses a serious threat to his chieftainship.

Several hundred members of the Mahar community from different parts of Ghotki district gathered at Gohar Palace in Khangarh on Thursday evening to express their strong reservations and “anguish” over the marriage, solemnised a few days back in Karachi, with Mian Majjan. Hundreds of other community members also set off to the palace but were stopped on the way as the Mahar family had put up barricades at various spots. The Khangarh police were also put on alert to maintain law and order.

Pakistan Peoples Party MNA Mohammad Bux Khan Mahar broke down in tears when he faced a flurry of questions about the community’s “traditions and honour” during the noisy deliberations and was asked to nullify the wedlock or quit as chieftain. The emotionally charged community members, in the presence of Ghotki district council chairman Haji Khan Mahar, Haji Ali Dino Khan Mahar, Maula Bux Khan Mahar, Raja Khan Mahar and other elite of the community, urged Sardar Ali Gohar Khan Mahar — who had given his consent to the gathering at Gohar Palace to help find a way out — to take over the chieftainship from Sardar Mohammad Bux.

Published in Dawn, August 22nd, 2020