Condolences: Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed visits Pir jo Goth

President Asif Ali Zardari and Nawaz Sharif are expected to participate in Pir Pagaro's soyem on Saturday.

PIR JO GOTH:

The president and ruler of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan , was among the scores of high-profile visitors who went to Pir jo Goth to pay their respects to the new Pir Pagara, Syed Sibghatullah Rashidi, and offer their condolences on his father Shah Mardan Shah’s death.

The chief minister of Punjab, Mian Shahbaz Sharif, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s Ghous Ali Shah, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s Ishaq Khakwani, Jahangir Tareen, Punjab IG Javed Iqbal, Awami Tehreek’s Rasool Bux Palijo, Sindh National Front’s Mumtaz Bhutto, former federal minister Haji Hanif Tayyab and Sardar Muhammad Bux Mahar also went to Pir jo Goth on Friday.

Shahbaz Sharif said, while talking to the media, that the seventh Pir Pagara was not only the spiritual leader of the Hur Jamaat but was also a great politician. He said that it was Pir Pagara’s dream to bring all factions of the Muslim League together and he had worked hard on it. It is difficult to fill the political vacuum which has been created after his demise. The soyem of the late Pir Pagara will be held today. President Asif Ali Zardari and Nawaz Sharif are expected to participate.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 14^th, 2012.