Ten days back, a memorial seminar was organized in honor of our great Seraiki friend, teacher and intellectual comrade Dr. Ghulam Abbas Shakir (Late) at Haseeb Memorial Trust Building at Lahore, in chair of Irfan Mufti, secretary Pakistan Social Forum. The speakers of the seminar were Zahid Islam, Faiz Rehman (president Amnesty International, Pakistan), G.M.Ghanjera, Mahar Safdar Ali, Uzma Zareen, Nasreen Awan and so many others.
Speakers expressed that comrade was born October 20, 1949 at Behal Distt.Bhakkar. He did his matriculation from Lal Esan Karore High School in 1965. As he belonged to extremely poor family so he had to do job to earn livelihood to support his family. Thus after doing matriculation, he joined Fecto Sugar Mills, Darya Khan. During his job he joined local trade union and contributed a lot for the rights of laborers where he was victimize pathetically and was threatened many times by the administration of the mills to murder him, many attempts were made to achieve the target. Later on he joined Pakistan Peoples Party but soon was disappointed and joined Mazdoor Kissan Party lead by Maj. Ishaq Muhammad. Then mutual consent of the friends, he joined Ittehad Chemicals at Mureed Kay (Kala Shah Kakoo) where he was assigned to organize labor union and party units. He did his utmost efforts to organize labor movement and he succeeded in his struggles. In this duration, and his party, MKP, was divided in two factions. He supported Imtiaz Alam group along with his many young political activists, but soon said faction was merged into Pakistan National party. During Zia’s military regime, he left for Moscow on the advice of party leadership for further education in Marxism.
Unfortunately, when he came back four years, his party was shattered and all the comrades were dispersed. It was very crucial time not only for party workers but also for late comrade. Then, he decided to start medical practice in his native village at Behal to earn his livelihood but could not run because of his political mind. He came again to Lahore and met with his old friends, they advised him to join NGO, to maintain his livelihood because he was badly suffering during this period. He worked with Farrah Pervaiz Saleh for a few months and later joined South Asia Partnership Pakistan. Initially he was appointed as Program Officer in program partnership unit but soon was promoted as a Coordinator of Governance unit, where he ran successfully two programs i.e. Democratic Rights and Citizen Education Program and Democracy and Human Rights Program. During this period he organized series of dialogues, seminars, workshops, rallies and press conferences through out the country for the empowerment of marginalized segments of the society especially women, minorities, oppressed nations, and peasants. He also organized district focal groups in 70 districts of Pakistan comprising progressive political activists and intellectuals and contributed a lot for human rights, democracy and peace.
Abbas Shakir was also a Seraiki poet, nationalist and intellectual; he was one of the founder members of Seraiki Lok Sanjh. He initiated to publish first Seraiki magazine” Parchool” along with Roshan Malik, Mansoor Aafaq and few other friends of Seraiki Wasaib from Mianwali and made great struggle for the uplifting, promotion and identity of Seraiki language. He wrote many articles on the Seraiki national question and language.
After the collapse of Russia, he was very much disappointed but when process of world social forum was initiated he was very happy and again become active to organize the movements, he was fully involved to mature this process that he was elected as Coordinator of Punjab social Forum. When world social forum was being held in India, Bombay he worked day and night in Pakistan for the success of said event. Although he was facing health problems yet he attended the forum. This forum was attended by more than 50,0000 people [from] through out the world.
He also struggled to hold Pakistan Social Forum at Lahore where a large number of people participated in the process from all over the country.
Last year when earth quick destroyed the whole life of northern areas, he visited there but when came back he was not feeling well and was admitted in hospital but Doctors could not diagnosed his disease timely, when disease was diagnosed, his condition was very worse and out of control. At last on December 15, 2005, he left us alone but his memories are still alive… I never forget his love, passion and wisdom… he was a genuine and true son of soil and I am proud of him.
Reported by: G.M.Ghanjera