The Government of Sindh has decided to cancel the official celebrations of the annual Urs of the great Sufi saint and Sindhi poet, Hazrat Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai, this year in cognizance of the flood situation across the province.
Sources said that only a wreath will be placed on his shrine instead of the three-day official festival this year.
The three-day annual Urs start on 14 Safar in Bhat Shah — the saint’s final resting place.
The usual official events include the Shah Latif Literary Conference, the traditional Sindhi boating competition ‘melakharu’, traditional Sindhi wrestling, Sufi music concerts, agricultural and industrial exhibitions, a cultural village for the promotion of heritage items, and the distribution of Sindh’s biggest government award — the Shah Latif Award.
Similarly, the Pakistan Army’s media wing, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), also announced last week that the Defence Day celebrations will be postponed in solidarity with the victims of the devastating floods in the country.
It tweeted on 31 August, “In solidarity with the flood-affected people of Pakistan, central ceremony at GHQ to commemorate Defence and Martyrs Day on 6 September has been postponed”.
The ISPR also specified that the armed forces will continue serving the people affected by the floods.
Nearly a third of the country has been inundated and over 30 million people have been displaced by the unusual monsoon rain floods this year, as per estimates. The floods have damaged and obliterated infrastructure, and swept away several roads, bridges, houses, schools, hospitals, and powerhouses, rendering places isolated and unreachable, which have also affected the pace of rescue and relief operations.
