JSQM threatens protests on 30th

Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM) Chairman Bashir Qureshi on Friday announced that province-wide protest rallies and demonstrations would be organised on May 30 to press the authorities to release “missing” nationalist activists, including Dr Safdar Sarki. Addressing a news conference here, the JSQM chief regretted that despite the “long march” from Sukkur to Karachi, the government paid no heed to the issue. He said if the government did not take notice of even the May 30 protests, then the JSQM would block the National Highway at Hatri for 24 hours, halting traffic to and from the Punjab.

GM Syed’s death anniversary observed in Sann, Dadu

The 12th death anniversary of Jeay Sindh Tahreek's founder late Ghulam Murtaza Shah (GM Syed) was observed here on Wednesday in his native town Sann with solemnity. The family members of GM Syed led by Syed Jalal Mehmood Shah, Zain Shah, and JSQM leader Bashir Qureshi visited the Mazar, while the entire town of Sann was decorated with flags, buntings and portraits of GM Syed. Since early morning caravans of Jeay Sindh Tahreek's activists started to arrive in Sann. As many as 300 caravans of Jeay Sindh workers also reached Sann after a long march from every nook and corner of Sindh.They showered the Mazar with flowers and laid many wreaths. Two separate public meetings were held in Sann by Bashir Khan Qureshi of Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz and Abdul Wahid Aresar.

GM Syed death anniversary in Sann dist. Dadu

The 12th death anniversary of G M Syed, the founder of Jeay Sindh Movement, is to be observed Wednesday amid concerns of factional clashes.
Independent observers of Sindh’s politics have noted that the clashes are feared because of differences between Abdul Wahid Aresar and Bashir Qureshi, the chiefs of two factions of Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM). Both these factions have announced separate programmes to mark the anniversary. However, some of the other factions have decided not to attend either one of these programmes.

“Supporters will reach the grave of GM Syed at noon, followed by a public meeting at the graveyard’s back,” said Aresar, who enjoys the support of organising committee members Sirai Qurban Khuhawar, Shafi Karnani and Riaz Chandio.

Aresar has also invited Zain Shah, a grandson of G M Syed, to the public meeting in addition to those who have left the party such as Dr Mir Alam Marri, Hussain Bakhsh Thebo. Furthermore, renowned writers Agha Salim, Amar Jalil, Taj Joyo, Khaki Joyo, Wali Ram Walabh, Ghulam Nabi Mughal, Zaib Nizamani, Najma Shaikh, Gulshan Leghari have also been invited. On the contrary, Qureshi has said that his faction will hold a public meeting on the front end of the graveyard.

He said that Jalal Shah, another grandson of G M Syed and former deputy speaker of the Sindh Assembly, had been invited to his gathering. JSQM chairman, Abdul Khaliq Junejo, said that his faction had not chalked out any programme for the anniversary. In addition, Sindh Taraqi Passand Party’s vice chairman, Ali Hassan Chandio, mentioned that his party does not believe in attending such programmes. G. M. Syed was an active member of the Pakistan Movement. The factions today claim they still believe in the Syed’s ideology. How far this is true, remains to be seen.

Courtesy: DT

Former Sindh CM & PPP leader Abdullah Shah dead

Former Sindh chief minister Syed Abdullah Shah died here on Saturday at a local private hospital at the age of 76, after suffering from cancer. Shah had recently returned to Pakistan after 10 years in exile and had secured bail in several NAB references. His son, MPA Murad Ali Shah, said that his father loved his motherland and thus wanted to buried here. Shah’s funeral prayers will be offered at his ancestral village of Bajara Sehwan, Dadu at 6:00 a.m. Sunday. He leaves behind a wife, two sons and five daughters.Syed Abdullah Shah served as the chief minister of Sindh, speaker and deputy speaker of the Sindh Assembly, provincial food and agriculture minister and as a senator. He born in 1931 in Bajara Sehwan in Dadu where he received his early education. After reading law at SM Law College he started practicing. He joined the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) in 1970 and become a minister in the cabinet of Mumtaz Bhutto and Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi in the party’s first government. He also played an active role in the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy (MRD) against the dictatorship of Gen Ziaul Haq. He was put behind bars.Shah was an arch political rival of the late GM Syed and Koral Shah in Sehwan from where he contested the elections from the PPP platform. He was a close relative of the Gaddi Nasheen of Lal Shahbaz Qalander. When PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto became prime minister in 1988, Shah became the speaker of the Sindh Assembly and later, in 1993, he held the post of CM. It was during his tenure as CM that his own brother, Syed Ehsan Ali Shah, was murdered in Karachi, and Benazir’s brother Murtaza Bhutto was also killed in his tenure. After this incident, Shah tendered his resignation but Bhutto did not accept it. While he was CM, Shah openly demanded that the areas of Jesalmir and Junagardh (now in India), which were originally a part of Sindh, should be returned to the province. After the killing of Mir Murtaza Bhutto and the dissolution of the PPP government, Shah went into exile in Canada and the United States.
Courtesy: DT

JSQM names put on most-wanted list for first time

For the first time, the Crime Investigation Department (CID) has included the names of Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM) workers in its Red Book of most-wanted criminals in Pakistan.The latest edition of the Red Book, a confidential document, was printed on Friday. This time, the total number of names in the book is 42, including two JSQM members Shafi Mohammad alias Commando alias Ghulam Hussain Chandio and Khalil Ahmed Khaskheli. Their names were included after several bomb blasts in the interior of Sindh, targeting railway tracks and sensitive government installations.They join on the list the Al Qaeda’s Mohammad Zafar alias Qari Zafar alias Abu Kahafa, Umar Uzbik and Saud Memon. The list has names of men who are suspects in the attacks on the president, prime minister, corps commander and those who are accused of sectarian killings. Twenty-nine men of Sunni sects are on the list, in addition to eleven Shias linked to Sipah-e-Mohammad. The Sunni sectarian groups include Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (14 names), Harkatul Mujahideen al-Aalmi (2), Harkatul Mujahideen (1), Amjad Farooqui group (2), Jindullah (6). Twenty-one names on the list have head money totaling Rs 160 million.This is the third edition of the Red Book. The first edition (2003) had a total of 90 most-wanted terrorists/criminals out of which 52 were from Sunni sects and 38 from Shia groups. The second edition in 2004 had a total of 107 names out of which 61 were from Sunni groups and 46 from Shia groups. From 2001 onwards, the CID Sindh police have focused on sectarian killings and crimes and bomb blasts. According to their data, from 2002 to 2006, there have been 176 deaths and more than 300 people have been injured in sectarian-related violence. In 2002, twenty-nine people died (16 Shia, 13 Sunni), the next year 37 Shias and 20 Sunnis. In 2004, a total of 50 people were killed out of which 47 were Shias. In 2005, nine people were killed out of which seven were Sunnis. Last year, 51 people were killed (49 Sunnis and 2 Shias). The Nishtar Park bomb blast is counted as a sectarian incident by the CID.The CID claims that from 2001 to 2007 they have arrested 203 high-profile criminals, including 80 of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, 10 of the Sipah-e-Sahaba, 18 of the Sipah-e-Mohammad, 35 of the Harkatul Mujahideen al Aalmi and four from the Harkatul Mujahideen. From 2002 to 2006 there have been 120 bomb blasts in Sindh alone. The CID solved 52 cases and 68 are still a mystery.
Courtesy: DT

‘Paigham-e-Sindh’ JSQM rally reaches city in 26 days

The participants of Paigham-e-Sindh march - organized by Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM), Sindh National Party and some other local nationalist parties - reached at Karachi Press Club (KPC) on Thursday and held a demonstration that was addressed by JSQM leader Bashir Khan Qureshi and others.The Paigham-e-Sindh march that started from Sukkur on March 18 reached Karachi in 26 days after staying in many cities where the participants held demos and the leaders addressed public gatherings to highlight issues confronting Sindh and urging the people to follow the ideology of late nationalist leader G M Syed.
JSQM and other nationalist parties’ workers were carrying the flags of their respective parties as well as portraits of G M Syed and Bashir Khan Qureshi while raising party slogans.Addressing the march participants at KPC, JSQM leader Bashir Khan Qureshi said that the several hundred kilometers-long march was aimed at highlighting Sindh’s issues and creating awareness among masses as well as apprising the establishment of the consequences of ignoring the plight of Sindhi people.

He said late G M Syed had propounded a theory of religious tolerance, world peace and economic prosperity for all the oppressed nations. “Our caravan was started with a pledge to secure rights of Sindh province that had been usurped over the years by Punjab, which claims to be the big brother of smaller provinces,” he added.Qureshi felt that other nationalist parties’ leaders should also have participated in the caravan. He, however, said that Sindh’s nationalism revolves around the philosophy of late G M Syed because the aim of nationalist politics revolves around Sindh’s liberation.He maintained that the caravan was also a manifestation of the fact that the people were struggling against the disappearance of political activists in Balochistan and Sindh and they did not believe in what the government had been telling them about the detained or missing people.On the occasion, he bitterly criticized the City District Government Karachi (CDGK), saying that Karachi was an integral part of Sindh and the people speaking languages other than Sindhi could not deprive the old citizens of the metropolis from their rights.“CDGK should immediately stop conspiracies to expel Sindhis from Karachi by demolishing their villages and Katchi Abadis,” he warned and urged Sindhis to forge unity for attaining their democratic and basic human rights.Bashir Khaskheli, Illahi Bux Bulq and others also addressed the demo participants.
Courtesy: TN