Sibghatullah Shah Rashdi, known as Raja Saeen, is the current PirPagaro spiritual leader of the Hur Movement. He is also the president of the Pakistan Muslim League- Functional (PML-F).
Rashdi was born on 14 February 1956. He is the eldest son of Syed Shah Mardan Shah who died on January 11, 2012. He was one of three aspirants for the elevated position and was selected among two other aspiring brothers by a secretive electoral college.
The eighthPirPagara Syed Sibghatullah Shah Rashdi started his political career during the era of General ZiaulHaq when he was elected an MPA in the non-partisan elections of 1985. He was elected to the Sindh Assembly two other times, and also served as minister for irrigation, works and services in the Sindh government.
In the 1988 elections, he was defeated on his home seat of PirJo Goth near Khairpur to a Pakistan Peoples Party candidatebut was elected from Sanghar.
However, in the 1990 election, Raja Saeen managed to secure his PirJo Goth seat by defeating PPP candidate Rahim BuxWasan, the elder brother of Sindh minister ManzoorWassan.
The Hur Movement asked to dissociate himself from politics and concentrate more as their spiritual leader. In 2007, he was again appointed a minister in the provincial caretaker set-up.
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He married a cousin of former prime ministerYousaf Raza Gilani. But when his father divorced his first wife in 1992, Raja Saeen had no choice, but to break his marriage following a decision of the Hur Movement.
His second wife is from an Arab family of the UAE.He has four sons and two of them, Pir Rashid Shah and Umar Shah, are active in local politics.
During the 2013 general elections he formed Grand democratic alliance (GDA) among other political parties of Sindh. But the PML-F has faced several defections and the upcoming elections will prove if the party will make any significant impact in Sindh.
