Praises showered on Sayid Ghulam Mustafa Shah at event to mark his 100th birthday

Rich tributes was paid to renowned scholar and former federal minister Sayid Ghulam Mustafa Shah for his countless services to the field of education in Sindh during an event held at the Arts Council of Pakistan on Sunday to mark the centennial celebrations of his birth.

The event was organised by the Servants of Sindh Society and Arts Council in collaboration with the Sindh Graduates Association.

Sayid, who passed away at the age of 81 in October 1999, was a noted educationist and the editor of Sindh Quarterly. He was born in 1918, in Qadir Dino Shah village near Bulhri Shah Karim in Thatta district.

Describing the interesting personality of the late educationist, former federal minister and author Javed Jabbar shared how his every meeting with Sayid was like an interview. “He was always interviewing me, like he would [do to] most people. But [it was] not interviewing a person from a condescending or judgemental point of view,” Javed said, adding that the late educationist really wanted to find out about the person whom he talked to.

The former federal minister said he had the privilege of knowing Sayid from several dimensions. First of all, Javed said, his father Abdul Jabbar, who was a senior official of the government of Pakistan, happened to know Sayid.

Javed added that Sayid had played a role in his marriage as well because the parents of Javed’s wife Shabnam were close friends of him. The speaker said he was interviewed by the educationist before his marriage and he gave him a “no objection certificate”.

The former federal minister said he also had the honour of having Sayid as a fellow cabinet member in the first government of Benazir Bhutto. He said he owed Sayid a great debt as when he was contesting the non-party-based election of the Senate of Pakistan for a technocrat seat, he needed support from MPAs of Sindh but had no political background.

“Shah very graciously used his stature and his influence, [and] misled some innocent MPAs into casting their vote for me,” Javed humourously recalled his election to the Senate in a somewhat nostalgic tone. “I would not have been elected without his [Sayid’s] support.”

The auditorium echoed with an applause when Javed shared that during Sayid’s tenure as the federal minister for education, thousands of primary schools were set up. “Tens of thousands of children who would not otherwise have had access to primary or secondary schools were given that access,” he said.

“Shah was candid to the point of being almost harsh. He was a very difficult person to get along with,” Javed remarked. “But he was cruel in order to be kind.” The speaker remembered that Benazir had also once testified Sayid’s candour when she paid a tribute to him. Javed said he would not quote the words Sayid had uttered to Benazir’s face, advising her about certain decisions that she took, which others would not have dared to say to her face.

Prof Aijaz Qureshi, who is the compiler of a book on Sayid, gave the welcome address at the event. He shared how the educationist published Sindh Quarterly’s 100 issues until his demise.

Sayid also established Shah Abdul Latif Cultural Society where he organised cultural functions, Prof Qureshi informed the event. “Moreover, he with some other intellectuals made Servants of Sindh Society,” he said, adding that the purpose of the society was to let the government know what problems Sindh was facing.

“He was the person who wrote so much on the issues, not only in the Sindh Quarterly, but also in resolutions and letters and papers [that he] sent to the government.” Sayid, Prof Qureshi said, wrote books on varied themes including Kalabagh Dam, water issues, and social and cultural conditions of Sindh.

Politician and media personality Mehtab Akbar Rashdi lamented that people like Sayid were not remembered as frequently as they deserved for their services to their land. She shared how much a visionary person the late educationist was.

She remembered Sayid’s contributions to the education sector in Sindh in various roles including those of the vice chancellor and education minister. From his face, Mehtab said, Sayid looked very stern, “But deep down inside his heart, he was such a soft man. He believed in humanity. He was a friend of the youngsters.”

Sayid, according to her, wanted to see the young generation of Sindh emerge as a successful generation which could compete with other nations. “For that, he was creating [such] environment in universities so that the young generations of Sindh should reach where he wanted them to be,” Mehtab said.

She also discussed Sayid’s editorials in the Sindh Quarterly through which he fou0ght against the establishment of that era. Former bureaucrat and secretary of Benazir Mohibullah Shah, former federal secretary Salman Farooqui, historian and writer Ghulam Muhammad Lakho and others also spoke at the ceremony.