Ghous Ali Shah accuses children of plotting his murder

SUKKUR: Veteran politician, ex-chief minister Sindh and federal minister Syed Ghous Ali Shah has disowned the children from his late first wife, including two sons and a daughter, from his properties for allegedly plotting his murder and that of his second wife and their son.

Addressing a press conference in Khairpur on Wednesday, 87-year-old Syed Ghous Ali Shah accused his sons Syed Shabbir Hyder Shah, Syed Ali Hyder Shah, daughter Shahida Fatima and grandsons Syed Qurban Shah, Syed Jaffar Shah, Syed Nawaz Ali Shah of hatching a murder plot against him, his second wife and their son Syed Safdar Shah. He held grandson Syed Qurban Shah as the mastermind of plotting the murders.

Wiping away his tears, Shah said he had spent the entire last year in agony and in efforts to patch up with the family, but all his efforts failed. But now the revelation of the murder plot has broken the proverbial last straw and he cannot bear it anymore. He said it was against this backdrop that he had to take the painful decision of disowning them from his property and going public about the whole issue.

In a voice choked with emotions and with tears rolling down his cheeks, the former PML-N leader said that he provided the best facilities and quality education to all of his children without any discrimination. He said he also made them supervise affairs related to his assets and properties during his exile to London with his second wife and son. But he was devastated to learn during his exile that his children attempted to occupy his major assets, seizing landed property and even robbing precious household items in his absence, so he could not transfer them to his second wife and son. Shah said despite all this, he tried to put this behind but now they had allegedly plotted to kill him, his wife and son.

Earlier, Syed Ghous Ali Shah got an FIR registered against his sons Syed Shabbir Hyder Shah, Ali Hyder Shah, grandsons Qurban Shah, Nawaz Ali Shah and Syed Jaffar Shah at the Piryaloi Police Station in Khairpur. The distraught father charged that his sons and grandsons had grabbed his property, including a petrol pump, and they also planned to kill him. Acting on the FIR, Piryaloi Police took Qurban Shah and others into custody.

Meanwhile, reacting to the father’s allegations, his elder son Syed Shabbir Hyder Shah dismissed the allegations, saying “there is no question of any one of us ever being disloyal to him. The charge of plotting the murder of my father, stepmother and stepbrother is unthinkable.”

Hyder Shah said in fact it was their stepmother and stepbrother Syed Safdar Shah who had influenced their father to fracture the family. He charged that his stepmother and stepbrother wanted to settle in London by selling away the assets and properties and isolating their father from the rest of the family. Hyder added that the former chief minister had nominated his grandson Syed Nawaz Ali Shah as his political successor who during the former’s exile kept the constituents united in his favour.