Sindhi Association of North America has concluded its 35th convention in Toronto with the announcement of the Jawaid Bhutto scholarship for students in Pakistan.
SANA also resolved in favor of naming Jawaid’s former department at Sindh University the `Jawaid Bhutto Department of Philosophy.’ Moreover, participants extended support to a future Institute of Philosophy and Social Sciences to be created in Jawaid’s name at Sindh University, Jamshoro.
SANA president Mohammed Ali Mahar made the announcement at a session, June 30, 2019 at the Hotel Sheraton in Toronto, addressed by contemporaries, students and friends of Jawaid Bhutto.
Speakers included the SANA president, Ayub Shaikh, Mir Mazhar Talpur, Mir Muzzafar Talpur and Nafisa Hoodbhoy.
Speaking on the occasion, Ayub Shaikh spoke about how Jawaid Bhutto was “snatched away” at a time when he had peaked in his intellectual capacity and in his development as a Sufi.
Mir Mazhar spoke about how Jawaid’s mystical teachings of Sufi poet Shah Latif Bhitai were the need of the hour. He said that the issues that Jawaid addressed were meant to orient people of Sindh as to what they needed to do to redress the problems of the society.
Mir Muzzafar spoke about Jawaid’s evolution from being a student of philosophy in Bulgaria to achieving a level of understanding that depicted how he had evolved intellectually over the years.
Nafisa Hoodbhoy spoke on how the `disappearance’ of Jawaid Bhutto reminded his students and admirers of how Rumi’s mentor Shams Tabriz had “vanished.” The analogy seemed to hold for Jawaid “since no one who knew him personally ever saw him after that fateful day,” she said.