KHAIRPUR: Sibghatullah Shah Rashdi, the eighth Pir Pagara of Hur Jamaat, was unanimously elected president of the Pakistan Muslim League-Functional at a meeting of its central council in Pir Jo Goth on Saturday.
Ninety-one members of the council offered condolences on the death of Pir Pagara Shah Mardan Shah and discussed a one-point agenda of electing a new president of the party.
A spokesman for the PML-F said Pir Sadruddin Shah Rashdi, president of the party’s Sindh chapter, proposed Pir Sibghatullah Shah for the post. It was seconded by Makhdoom Ahmed Mehmood, president of the Punjab chapter.
The party unanimously elected Sibghatullah Shah as president. The office had fallen vacant after the death, on Jan 10, of his father, Pir Pagara Shah Mardan Shah.
In his speech, the new PML-F chief said he would carry forward the vision of his late father. He said he wanted to see unification of all factions of the Pakistan Muslim League, promising to do his utmost for achieving the goal.
Pir Sibghatullah said that all decisions would be made on merit and he would like to have reconciliation with “political friends”.
Pir Sadruddin Shah Rashdi said he would take guidelines from Pir Sibghatullah Shah Pir Pagara in political activities. He said hard work was needed to fill the vacuum left by the death of his father.
Muzaffar Ali Shah, a former chief minister of Sindh, paid tribute to the late Pir Pagara, saying that he had many qualities, the foremost of which was political sagacity.
He said the PML-F would have to work out a new strategy in the interest of the nation.
The central council adopted a resolution, moved by Ashiq Nizamani, calling upon the government to drain out stagnant rainwater from agricultural lands
The resolution also called for provision of seeds and fertilisers free of cost to growers in rain-hit areas.
The council urged withdrawal of new electricity tariff because it would affect household consumers as well as the agricultural sector.
The PML-F council also expressed concern over price hike.
The meeting was attended, among others, by Jam Mashooq Ali, Imtiaz Sheikh, MPAs Jam Madad Ali, Marvi Rashdi and Nusrat Sehar Abbasi, Senator Sajid Hussain Zaidi and Musharraf Khan Khoso, president of the PML-F’s Balochistan chapter.
