Shujaabadi voicing public aspirations despite disability

Stipends offered by past govts stopped despite plight of poet

MULTAN:

Shakir Shujaabadi, a popular and beloved poet, has been highlighting the deprivations of Seraiki people and voicing their feelings despite himself being deprived of the power of speech because of a neurological disorder.

His real name is Muhammad Shafi and he was born on February 25, 1953 in Raja Ram, a small village of Shujaabad.

For the past several decades, he has been the voice of Saraiki people.

Shujaabadi has been writing poetry regularly since 1986. "I am not just talking about the problems of the Saraiki Waseb but about the oppressed people of the whole world," he declares.

He could speak till 1994, when he suffered a stroke that left him unable to properly speak and his grandson interprets for him.

His ailment turned over time into primary dystonia, a neurological disorder characterised by disabling, abnormal, involuntary movement.

As treatment of the disorder was not possible in Pakistan, doctors had advised him treatment abroad. According to the doctors, his treatment would have been possible from abroad up to about 12 years ago, but now his ailment has progressed to a stage where its cure is not possible.

It is feared that he would have to spend the rest of their life in the same condition.

Shujaabadi is a representative poet of Saraiki language in the contemporary age.

The government had awarded him the Presidential Pride of Performance Award on August 14, 2006, a presidential medal in 2017, the Sitara-e-Imtiaz last year.

His books include Lahu Da Arak, Peele Patar, Baldien Hanju, Monafikaan Tu Khuda Bachawe, Gulab Sare Mubarak, Kalam-e-Shakir, Khuda Jaane, Shakir Diyan Ghazlan and Shakir De Dohde.

He is the only poet whose books have been bublished in Lahore, Islamabad, Karachi and other cities besides Saraiki region.

However, there has not been much research on the creations and personality of Shujaabadi for future scholars.

According to family sources, he is also not receiving any financial support from the government except Rs5,000 monthly profit from a deposit made by the provincial government in 2014 through the deputy commissioner of Multan.

Interacting with The Express Tribune through his grandson, he insisted that he did not make any appeal or demand from anyone.

Financial assistance given to him by the previous Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government has stopped. In the past, former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, Jahangir Tareen and other leaders had offered him support. The Punjab government had announced a monthly stipend of Rs36,000 for Shujaabadi along with a donation of Rs300,000, which has been discontinued.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 19^th, 2023.