Sunday, January 18, 2009
Jan 17 was 105th birth anniversary of the great politician of the subcontinent, Ghulam Murtaza Shah, otherwise known as G M Syed. He was born in Sann in Dadu (now Jamshoro district) in 1904 and became one of Sindh’s greatest politicians and scholars. G M Syed started his political career at the early age of 14. In 1929 he became the president of Karachi District Local Board and 1930 he organised a Sindhi peasant conference. In 1937 he was elected to the Sindh Legislative Council and in 1938 he joined the All-India Muslim League and was made education minister for Sindh in 1940. He became president of the League in Sindh in 1943 and the following G M Syed move resoulation in Sindh Assembly which was passed in favour of a new homeland for the Muslims of India. Sindh Assembly in the only assembly in Pakistan which has Passed the Lahore resoulation
The irony is that despite all of this, after Pakistan’s creation, G M Syed was incarcerated for long periods of time. Altogether, he was kept in jail and later under house arrest for over 30 years. At the time of his death on April 25, 1995, he was under house arrest.