Jam Saqi paid tribute

LAHORE: Speakers, including former student leaders, social activists and intellectuals, showered tributes on late Jam Saqi for his untiring advocacy for the cause of the oppressed.

At a condolence meeting held at Safma office here, Friday, Imtiaz Alam, Safma Secretary General said, Jam Saqi was one of the leftists, revolutionary and socialists who had faced imprisonment during Ziaul Haq’s martial law. Saqi was imprisoned but his ideology could not be defeated.

He was a brave man who could fight in very difficult time. The scale of revolutionary ideas exceeded the vastness of Thar, he was actually internationalist said Imtiaz Alam. He had developed relations with peasants and labour class. Saqi started a movement for the rights of the oppressed, farmers, labourers and minorities.

After seeing his struggle, he was made secretary of Communist Party of Pakistan. He had been fighting against dictators but never bowed before any brutal force. IA Rehman said Jam Saqi was also a member of the Council of Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) for some years.

Hussain Naqi shared that Jam Saqi who had been actively engaged in organising the haris in Sindh along with launching the progressive political movement as an underground communist movement became a target of the Zulfikar Ali Bhutto-led government. Farooq Tariq of Awami Workers Party (AWP), an intellectual Dr Lal Khan, Diep Saeeda and others also spoke on the occasion.