HYDERABAD - HAFEEZ SHAIKH  -  Sindh Taraqi Pasand Party Chairman Dr Qadir Magsi has recalled the days he had spent with JSQM Chairman in the early 80s and said late Bashir Qureshi was a brave man. “Together we faced trials and tribulations and he stood like a rock,” Maqsi said while addressing a condolence meeting held to pay tribute to late JSQM chairman at the STP headquarters in Qasimabad on the other day. He said the people of Sindh wielded power and influence in the 70s, but now they are like orphans. “No one gives them importance and their fate is being decided in London and at Mardan House. But we’ll not accept this new kind of subjugation, as we consider it a curse,” he said. The elements talking about a separate province in Sindh, he said, wanted to occupy the coastal strip from Thatta to Badin and Tharparkar, besides Karachi, and thereby wanted to control economic lifeline of the province. He stressed that a joint struggle was needed to thwart such plans.
He urged leaders of all nationalist parties to consider joining parliamentary politics which, he said, is necessary till the motherland attained freedom. He said he would try to convince them that it was the best strategy and if he failed, he would let others to work out their course of action.  JSQM Secretary General Asif Baladi alleged that Qureshi had been removed from the scene through slow poisoning. “State institutions and government are responsible for his murder,” he alleged. He said that an international conspiracy could also not be ruled out in Qureshi’s death. “Those who think the JSQM will vanish after the death of Qureshi, are mistaken,” said Baladi adding the JSQM respected every political and nationalist leader striving for Sindh’s prosperity and integrity.
Jeay Sindh Tehrik (JST) Chairman Safdar Sarki paid rich tribute to Qureshi and recalled his 30-year association with him until Sarki left the JSQM to form JST a few years ago. He said that Qureshi pursued the politics of non-violence. He expressed distrust in the government’s ability to get his death investigated in a proper manner. He said that the MQM had become politically helpless although it gave an impression that it enjoyed the support of Europe and the US. The MQM had become isolated internationally and, therefore, it was talking about a Mohajir province, Sarki said adding those who wanted a Mohajir province would be considered refugees and treated accordingly as per international rules.
Jeay Sindh Mahaz-C chairman Riaz Chandio who worked as JSQM`s finance secretary for some time and later formed his own faction in 2008 said that Qureshi had said after murder attempts made on his life that a dead Qureshi would be more dangerous for the establishment. He said that the situation required all the nationalists to stand united for Sindh’s survival. Nazar Junejo of Sindh United Party, nationalist activist Yousaf Leghari and civil society leaders Zulfikar Halepoto, Jami Chandio and Ejaz Qureshi also spoke at the meeting.