SUKKUR, Jan 12: Shah Mardan Shah-II Pir Pagara, the spiritual leader of Hur Jamaat and chief of the Pakistan Muslim League (Functional), was laid to rest in his ancestral graveyard in Dargah-i-Rashidia in Pir Jo Goth on Thursday afternoon.

According to the family tradition, the decision about Pir Pagara's succession was taken before burial by 15 Khalifas (elders of the jamaat) who selected the late leader's eldest son Pir Sibghatullah Shah alias Raja Sain as the 8th Pir Pagara.The dastarbandi of the new pir was held before zuhar prayers. Former foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Syed Ahmed Mehmood, Syed Ali Gohar Shah, Syed Sadaruddin Shah Rashidi, Jam Mashooque Ali, the prime minister's son Abdul Qadir Gilani and former Sindh chief minister Sardar Ali Mohammad Mahar attended the dastarbandi ceremony.

Funeral prayer, led by Pir of Jhang Siraj Ahmed Gillani, was attended by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, Sindh Chief Minister SyedQaim Ali Shah, Syed Ghous Ali Shah, Hamza Shahbaz Sharif, Muttahida Qaumi Movement leaders Dr Sagheer Ahmed and Ashfaque Mangi, MQM chairman Afaque Ahmed and several serving and former ministers and legislators.

The new Pir Pagara, 55, has served as provincial minister for irrigation in 1985-87. He was active in politics till 1990 but afterwards he left political matters to Syed Sadaruddin Shah Rashidi who is president of the PML-F's Sindh chapter.