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Jam Saqi (Sindhi: ڄام ساقي) (October 31, 1944 – March 5, 2018) popularly known as Comrade Jam Saqi, was a left-wing politician from
Sindh Sindh (; ; ur, , ; historically romanized as Sind) is one of the four provinces of Pakistan. Located in the southeastern region of the country, Sindh is the third-largest province of Pakistan by land area and the second-largest province ...
, Pakistan. He was previously the general secretary of the Communist Party of Pakistan. Saqi was imprisoned for more than 15 years due to his political activities. During his period in jail his then wife, Sukhan, had committed suicide after reading a newspaper containing allegations of Jam Saqi's death. He then left the Communist Party in 1991 and joined the
Pakistan Peoples Party The Pakistan People's Party ( ur, , ; PPP) is a centre-left, social-democratic political party in Pakistan. It is currently the third largest party in the National Assembly and second largest in the Senate of Pakistan. The party was founded ...
and the Trotskyist The Struggle group. He was married to Akhtar Sultana.


Biography

Born in village Janjhi, Taluka Chhachhro, district Tharparkar, in the home of Muhammad Sachal who was an educationalist and a well known social worker at Thar, Saqi passed his matriculation examinations from Local Board High School, Chachro in 1962. Later, he studied at Government College, Sachal Sarmast Arts College Hyderabad, and Sindh University, Jamshoro from where he did his Masters. In an interview Jam Saqi recounted later that a retired primary teacher Inayatullah Dhamchar put him in touch with the underground Communist Party of Pakistan. Saqi, a fiery student leader of yesteryears, was arrested after the incident of 4 March 1967. Later he founded Sindh National Students Federation (SNSF) – a student wing of Communist Party on November 3, 1968, of which he was the founder president with Nadeem Akhter as the founding vice president and Mir Thebo as general secretary of the organization. Saqi worked with Comrade Haider Bux Jatoi, G.M Syed, Qazi Faiz Muhammad, Ghulam Muhammad Laghari and many other nationalist and peasant workers of Sindh. In 1969, he joined Sindh Hari Committee (Sindh Peasants organisation) at Sakrand Hari conference. Small wonder, then, that Pakistan People's Party emerged victorious in Sindh and Punjab, Awami League in East Pakistan and National Awami Party in North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and Balochistan. All of them had socialist leaning," Saqi told The News. He had to serve sentence awarded by military court in early 70s. Later he joined
National Awami Party The National Awami Party (NAP), translated from Urdu to English as National People's Party, was the major left-wing political party in East and West Pakistan. It was founded in 1957 in Dhaka, erstwhile East Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh), by A ...
and was elected joint secretary of the party. However, he regretted that while Bhutto and Maulana Bhashani openly espoused socialism, the communist cadre was taught to retrain themselves to the slogan of national democratic revolution. In 1971 when a military operation was initiated in East Pakistan, his organization brought out rallies against the military junta in Hyderabad and Nawabshah. During this period he went underground and organised peasants and youth of Sindh. In 1983, he along with Prof. Jamal Naqvi, Sohail Sangi,
Badar Abro Mullah Badar was a governor of the Afghan province of Badghis during the reign of the Taliban The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state (polity), state name, the ...
,
Kamal Warsi The Jam Saqi trial (or Jam Saqi case), was a political and judicial program in the history of Pakistan marked by a rise of widespread fear of expansion of communism and the socialism. There were series of federal investigations led by the FIA and ...
and Shabir Shar was tried in a special military court for allegedly acting against the ideology of Pakistan. Stalwarts, such as Pakistan Peoples Party leader
Benazir Bhutto Benazir Bhutto ( ur, بینظیر بُھٹو; sd, بينظير ڀُٽو; Urdu ; 21 June 1953 – 27 December 2007) was a Pakistani politician who served as the 11th and 13th prime minister of Pakistan from 1988 to 1990 and again from 1993 t ...
, Baloch leader Mir Ghous Bux Bizenjo,
Khan Abdul Wali Khan Khan Abdul Wali Khan ( ps, خان عبدالولي خان; 11 January 1917 – 26 January 2006) was a Pakistani secular democratic socialist and Pashtun leader, and served as president of Awami National Party. Son of the prominent Pashtun nat ...
, Begum
Tahira Mazhar Ali Khan Tahira Mazhar Ali (née ''Hayat'') (5 January 1924 – 23 March 2015) was a Pakistani women's rights campaigner and a political activist, and mentor to Benazir Bhutto. Her children include British Pakistani political activist Tariq Ali, Tauseef H ...
, Mairaj Mohammad Khan, Fatehyab Ali Khan, Maulana Shah Mohammed Amroti, some renowned journalists Manhaj Burna, Shaikh Ali Mohammad, Shaikh Aziz, Iqbal Jafri, student leaders Hasil Bezinjo, and so on, were his defence witnesses. This case is also known as Communist case or Jam Saqi Case. Jam Saqi supported the anti Zia
MRD movement MRD may refer to: Fiction * Mutant Response Division, fictional Marvel Comics organization * MRD, fictional substance used for time travel in the 2015 film ''Synchronicity'' Medicine * Medical records department in a hospital * Minimal residual dis ...
launched by the alliance of political parties. Jam Saqi is also an author. He wrote a novelet "Khahori Khijan", a book about students movement in Sindh "Sindh Ji Shagrid Tahreek", while his court statements in the special military courts were published in book format (in both
Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''
Sindhi languages) with the names "Tareekh Moonkhay na wesarreendi" and "Zameer ke Qaidi". In 2009 he was given a lifetime achievement award for his outstanding services rendered for betterment of working class conditions and human rights.


Death

On 5 March 2018, Saqi died at the age of 73, due to kidney failure in
Hyderabad, Sindh Hyderabad ( Sindhi and ur, ; ) is a city and the capital of Hyderabad Division in the Sindh province of Pakistan. It is the second-largest city in Sindh, and the eighth largest in Pakistan. Founded in 1768 by Mian Ghulam Shah Kalhoro of th ...
. In the evening, after the
namaz-e-janaza ( ar, صلاة الجنازة) is the Islamic funeral prayer; a part of the Islamic funeral ritual. The prayer is performed in congregation to seek pardon for the deceased and all dead Muslims. The is a collective obligation upon Muslims () i. ...
he was laid to rest at the Baban Shah graveyard in
Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part ...
.


See also

*
Jam Saqi case The Jam Saqi trial (or Jam Saqi case), was a political and judicial program in the history of Pakistan marked by a rise of widespread fear of expansion of communism and the socialism. There were series of federal investigations led by the FIA and ...
*
Politics of Pakistan The Politics of Pakistan () takes place within the framework established by the constitution. The country is a federal parliamentary republic in which provincial governments enjoy a high degree of autonomy and residuary powers. Executive ...


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saqi, Jam 1944 births 2018 deaths Pakistani communists Sindhi people Communist Party of Pakistan politicians Pakistani Trotskyists International Marxist Tendency People from Tharparkar District