Son fills in shoes as Pir Pagara laid to rest

Elder son of Pir Mardan Shah Pir Pagara VII, Pir Sibghatullah Rashdi alias Raja Saeen, on Thursday became Pir Pagra VIII, followed by the funeral and burial of his father at the family’s native graveyard in Pir Jo Goth. The decision was made in a meeting of Khalifa of Hur Jamaat at Pir Goth in Khairpur district on Thursday. The meeting of 16 Khalifas of Hur Jamaat was held at Pir Jo Goth, the native village of Pagara family. It was presided over by chief Khalifa Qadir Bukhsh Mangrio. Of the 16 Khalifas, 15 are from Pakistan while one is from India. Pir Pagara’s body was earlier brought to Karachi from London at 6:15am. It was then flown to Sukkur by a special flight, from where it was sent to Pir Jo Goth in a helicopter. The funeral was attended by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah, Sindh Home Minister Manzoor Wassan, Khurshid Ahmed Shah, son of Punjab chief minister Hamza Shahbaz, Shah Mahmood Qureshi and a three-member delegation of MQM among others. The funeral prayers were led by Pir of Jhang Siraj Ahmed Gilani. The new Pir Pagara, Raja Saeen, has been a member of the Sindh Assembly thrice from 1990 to 1997, and was the irrigation minister in the provincial cabinet of Jam Sadiq Ali. The decision on the new leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Functional (PML-F) is yet to come.