HYDERABAD: Renowned septuagenarian Sindhi politician and rights activist Jam Saqi passed away in Hyderabad on Monday.

According to the family sources, Jam Saqi died because of kidney failure although he had been suffering from multiple diseases. He will be laid to rest in Hyderabad, the sources said.

Born on October 31, 1944, Jam Saqi was a left-leaning politician from Sindh. He also served as the general secretary of the Communist Party of Pakistan. Saqi was arrested in 1978 during the General Zia-led Martial and tried by a military court in the 1980s. As he was facing trial, Benazir Bhutto also appeared before the same court and deposed as Saqi’s defence witness, “Jam Saqi is a patriotic citizen of the state and must be released.”

However, he was jailed for about seven years until 1988. His first wife ended her life when she came to know her husband was being tortured in solitary confinement.

Saqi joined the Pakistan Peoples Party in the 1990s. He also remained a council member of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.—INP