#January17th 18th #MartyrdomAnniversary of Shaheed Fazil Rahu, a renowned political leader who lived and was martyred for democracy, rights of people and the rights of nationalities. He was a revolutionary leader in true sense, committed to the change of system, to equality and justice, prosperity and authority for poor majority of the country. He was assassinated on 17th Jan 1987 in Golarchi town of district Badin during General Zia-ul-Haq’s regime (The town of Golarchi was renamed “Shaheed Fazil Rahu” in 1991 by the then Chief Minister of Sindh Jam Sadiq Ali in first tenure of Mian Nawaz Sharif’s government). What made Shaheed Fazil distinct, was his practical approach and his methodology of political work and struggles. He used to find out the problems and issues of the common man, made them aware, educated and encouraged them to stand up for themselves. He utilized all his resources to drive them in their struggle for their rights and led them to be victorious thus infusing confidence in them. He had multiplicity in his political approach. Shaheed Fazil Rahu differed in his way of work. He defied the usual norm of the society by putting himself and his family members in test; being part of the movement he never spared his family to live a safe and comfortable life leaving the jails and atrocities for the people and workers. It is well understood from the fact that his son, two daughters, sister and his wife remained in jail at various times. Out of 25 years of his political life, he spent almost 13 years in different jails of Sindh that include Hyderabad Central Jail, Nara District Jail Hyderabad, Khairpur, Sukkur, Landhi and Karachi Central Jails in Sindh and Mach Jail of Baluchistan. He remained in jail in the era of General Ayub, General Yahya, Z.A. Bhutto and General Zia-ul-Haq. Every ruler of their times put him behind bars because of his uncompromised and continuous struggle for people. Shaheed Fazil Rahu was a God gifted leader. He was born in 1934 in a well off landlord family. But since the very beginning, he showed signs of compassion and empathy for the deprived portion of the society. His helping and comforting nature made him approachable for common man. Injustice in any form was simply intolerable to him. This turned the feudal lords against him since he stood up for the cause of poor peasants. In 1962, he entered the stream of democratic politics by defeating the strong influential (Jageerdar) of the area, Mir Aijaz Talpur in local bodies’ elections and became the chairman of the union council of the area. It was in mid sixties that he was exposed to progressive and nationalist politics. He was an active part of “Anti One Unit Movement” that also aimed at restoration of Sindhi language as the official and educational language; a status it had lost in the aftermath of One Unit. As one of the founder members and the elected president of Sindhi Awami Tehreek later named Awami Tehreek, he staged continuous struggles. The main feature that distinguished his struggles was that peasants, workers and other poor strata of the society formed a major part of the movements led by him. Sindhiani Tehreek and Sujag Baar Tehreek were organized to incorporate women and children in the ongoing struggle. In early 1986, he supported the initiative for merger of democratic and progressive forces to form a single national party. As a result a new nationwide party, Awami National Party emerged by the merging of N.D.P, Awami Tehreek, Mazdoor Kisan Party and PNP and he became its first Senior Vice President. The politics for people that he started from his porch had spread to whole Sindh and later encompassed the whole country. Soon he was playing his role in the main stream politics of Pakistan. Anti One Unit Movement, Quit Ayub Movement, Stop Auction of Lands (in which he saved 8 lac acres of land of small farmers which were cancelled by General Yahya), Remove Ban on Sindhi Papers and Periodicals in Z.A. Bhutto’s regime, Journalists’ Movement against Censorship in Zia’s dictatorship, M.R.D 1983-86 movements etc; All these are hallmarks of the long and strenuous struggle of Shaheed Fazil. He was a daring and non-compromising leader who had faith in power of people. After the judicial murder of Z.A. Bhutto, amidst an aura of fear and despair, he staged “HaariConference” at Rahuki in which masses of people raised slogans against the dictatorship and thus, Zia regime was really taken by surprise. The very next day, Rahuki was stormed by military forces and hundreds of people were arrested. He effectively led his party as a tool of struggle, Victories in various movements, took his party to new heights and the kingpins at the highest echelons of power could not ignore their voice. It was nothing less than a wonder that a party of lower strata of the society played a second major role after P.P.P. in the M.R.D movement. Shaheed Fazil Rahu himself mobilized the whole sindh and toured different parts of the country. The massive upsurge in M.R.D movement was because of his tireless struggle and marked skill of organizing political movement. He had a remarkable ability to approach various political and non-political forces and synergize them. This inherent nature and particular strength of work gave him access from a common man to the highest level of political leadership. He was of firm view that democracy was incomplete without provincial autonomy and equal rights of nationalities in the country. It was because of his efforts M.R.D. included the demand of provincial autonomy in its charter. He had endless love for poor and marginalized sections of the society. He strengthened and dignified them. Throughout his political career he never overlooked the day to day problems of the common man. From going with them to government offices, taking them to hospitals and helping them in their personal matters. Helping and sharing with them maintained his relations with different levels of the society. This was the reason why the people massively followed him and arrived by thousands at his call. They had faith in him and viewed him as their messiah. For politics to him was service and worship.
Posted on: Sat, 17 Jan 2015 07:16:52 +0000
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