Zubair Qureshi
Like every year, this year too, ParveenShakir’s friends, colleagues from the Customs Group (now Inland Revenue Services) and fans on Tuesday visited her grave in the H-8 Graveyard to observe her 29th death anniversary (died: Dec 26, 1994) and offered Fateha for the departed soul.
ParveenShakir was a trendsetter and an officer of the Customs Group. She served in Islamabad. As poetess she is considered even today a symbol of women empowerment and a role model for the young emerging women writers and poets.
On the occasion, members of the ParveenShakir Trust (PST) laid down a floral wreath at her grave and warmed their hearts by recounting their late friend’s contributions. They pledged to relive her memory from the trust’s platform through various events such as Mushaira, Seminars, literary dialogue and above all the annual Aks-e-Khushbu Award for the best works of poetry and fiction, etc.
The floral wreath and attending her grave is also an annual ritual the PST performs without fail.
Along with members of the trust including MajidQureshi, Muhammad Siddique, RubinaSiddique, members of a special contingent of the Pakistan Customs sent by Collector Customs, DrAsifMehmoodJah, ParveenShakir’s batch mate NazimSaleem, Zaheer Dar (Customs) fans of ParveenShakir paid rich tributes to ParveenShakir and they too laid down a floral wreath on her grave. ParveenShakir’a poetry collections “Khushbu” and others are among the best sellers even today.
