Transitions: MPA Syed Mohsin Shah Bukhari laid to rest

HYDERABAD:

Former provincial minister and MPA Syed Mohsin Shah Bukhari was laid to rest on Saturday at Tando Saen Dad in Tando Mohammad Khan district.

Bukhari died in Karachi at the age of 57 of intestinal cancer Friday night. He was a member of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and was elected five times to the Sindh Assembly from his district. He lost only once, that too by 466 votes, in the 2002 elections, to Mir Ali Nawaz Talpur of the National Alliance.

The federal minister for water and power, Naveed Qamar, MPAs Abdul Karim Soomro, Anwar Mehar, Ali Nawaz Chandio, government officials and notables of the city attended the funeral.

“The PPP has lost a loyal worker,” said Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah, who arrived after the funeral to offer condolence to the bereaved family. He remembered his services for the party and the people of his constituency. “Even his severe illness did not deter him from working for the relief of flood survivors.”

The people of his district praised him for constructing roads to connect small villages to the city, building schools, dispensaries and watercourses for irrigation, and for providing gas and electricity to the villages.

“He would never behave as a political opponent,” said Mir Ali Nawaz Talpur who contested the elections against him in 2002. He praised Bukhari for being accommodating and taking criticism constructively. “No one can claim that he ever lodged a false FIR against them,” he said, in reference to Bukhari refraining from being the conventional landlord.

The district president of the PPP, Haji Ameen Lakho, remembered Bukhari for their joint political struggle for over two and a half decades.

“His death has left a vacuum of leadership for his supporters,” says the federal minister, Naveed Qamar, who is also from the same constituency and worked with Bukhari in managing the district.

Bukhari is survived by four daughters, a son and his wife.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 15^th, 2012.