Karachi Tufail Abbas, a veteran communist leader, Chairman of Pakistan Mazdoor Mahaz and Chief Editor of an Urdu monthly ‘Awami Manshoor’ was paid a glowing tribute by prominent scholars and labour leaders at a function launching his autobiography titled ‘Subh ki laggan’ by Abbas. The book launching ceremony was organised by the Literary Committee of the Karachi Press Club (KPC), the other day. Speakers, underlining the services of Tufail Abbas said that he left no stone unturned when it came to organizing the working class and farmers of this country, for a true qualitative change in society. His recent book was the story of his struggle for the cause of socialism. The speakers including a prominent labour leader, Nabi Ahmed and Professor V.J. Singh, a teacher by profession associated with Delhi University were amongst the speakers who termed Tufail Abbas, a great leader whose guidance and ideology for unity amongst the down-trodden sections of society proved to be true and historic. Nabi Ahmed highlighted that Tufail Abbas was a leader of commitment who never compromised his principles, and courageously faced detention and victimization not only during martial law regimes, but also in the so-called democratic regimes of Pakistan. Prof V.J. Singh pointed out that his magazine titled ‘Revolutionary Democracy’ had conducted two separate interviews of Tufail Abbas and they were responded from different parts of India. He disclosed that the views of Abbas were liked and followed by all determined socialist leaders and workers across the country and owing to the liking of these interviews, Abbas’s views were translated into the different languages spoken in India. Sharing his meetings with Abbas, he said that he met him some nine years back and held detailed discussions and built correspondence with him, owing to which Singh drew the conclusion that in Pakistan, the ideological work of Abbas was indeed worthy and appreciable. He also expressed his surprise when the original thoughts of Abbas had not gained ground in leftist circles and parties in Pakistan. He thought that the people loved him and recognized him to be their leader, but his thoughts were not respected to a great extent. He suggested that the book by Abbas must be studied by all progressive circles as it contained a history of struggle and also give guidance to those working for the unity of workers and farmers and for the changing of the social structure in Pakistan. Other speakers including Anjum Rizvi, who conducted the proceedings of the function as well, Advocate Naim Qureshi, Abdus Salam, Mir Sultan Sangti, Junaid Awan, Ali Nasir and Sajjad Hussain in their detailed speeches highlighted the services of Tufail Abbas in various different fields. The speakers also mentioned that almost all the members of Abbas’s family had been serving the socialist cause and worked hard for a true social change. The speakers also paid homage to Zaki Abbas, the late younger brother of Tufail Abbas who was famous for his progressive ideology and struggle for the working class. Sharing his experiences, Zia Akhtar Abbas, son of late Zaki Abbas said that he saw his elders to be the perfect ideologues and activists. He further stated that their struggle inspired him and other youths in the family. Another young scholar, Kamran Abbas said that he had never seen such sort of people in other families and it seemed that they were more special as no body would dare to go to such extremes, such as facing great hardships, victimization and who rejected various benefits and chose a path where the greats fought for the weak and poor sections of society. Tufail Abbas said that he and his family had made sacrifices for a collective cause and had never compromised his principles, but he was quite unhappy that conscious circles of society and opinion makers did not value his thoughts. He pointed out that he was a man who had trained a large number of people in different walks of life, but they had ditched him. He regretted that many political activists, social scientists, journalists and trade unionists had taken an opportunist position in his case owing to ‘fear’ or other ‘considerations’ and he had to fight alone not only against the rulers, but against state actors as well. Yet, he declared, he was confident about his progressive ideology and conviction, he believed in a great social change for the future. The function was attended by a large number of people.
