LARKANA: Qamar Bhatti, founder chairman of the Jeay Sindh Qaum-parast Party (JSQP), was laid to rest in his ancestral town of Badah on Sunday.

He died of cardiac arrest in Karachi late on Saturday evening. Bhatti felt chest pain at his Safoora Goth residence and was taken to a private hospital but could not survive. He has left a son and four daughters.

The body was transported to Badah, where a shutterdown was observed on Sunday to mourn his death. He was buried in the courtyard of his rice mill located within the town.

A large number of party activists, as well as leaders and workers of political parties and nationalist groups including Dr Niaz Kalani, Abdul Khalique Junejo, Dr Mazhar Mughal, Hanif Sagar Burdi and Zia Shah attended the funeral.

Hafiz Manzoor Ahmed Mashori, the spiritual leader of the Mashori Sharif cult who happened to be the classmate of Qamar Bhatti, led the funeral prayers.

Born on Jan 21, 1958 in Faiz Mohammad Khokhar village of Naseerabad taluka in the undivided Larkana district, Bhatti got his primary education in Badah. After passing his 10th grade in 1969, he completed his intermediate education from a college in Larkana in 1973. He graduated from the University of Sindh and did his masters in economics from the same university in 1982.

Bhatti also studied law and obtained the LLB degree from Larkana in 1987.

He wrote two collections of poetry Geet ba munjha goliyoon in 1984 and Hind mein jilawatan Sindhi in 1987. He authored 10 books during the martial law rule of General Ziaul Haq and another 17 later. Some of them are mahkoom mulzim, Hakim judge Subhas Chandra Bose, Mohajiran jo mustaqbil and Sain G.M. Syed ji syasi aen zaati zindagi. Besides, Bhatti contributed articles on politics, literature and history to newspapers and journals and wrote some dramas.

During his struggle as a Sindhi nationalist, Bhatti also contested for a provincial assembly seat. In 2015, he had filed a constitutional petition in the Sindh High Court, Hyderabad circuit, seeking a ban on televised speeches of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) founder leader Altaf Hussain.Since his student life, he remained with the Jeay Sindh Students Federation (JSSF) and eventually became a close aide to G.M. Syed. In 1992, he founded Jeay Sindh Qaum-parast Party (JSQP).

Bhatti also remained in the forefront during the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy (MRD) in 1980s. He spent around 13 years of imprisonment in different periods. He was also flogged during the martial regime and remained underground for many years to escape arrest.

Published in Dawn, March 26th, 2018