KARACHI: Veteran journalist and former trade union leader Abdul Hameed Chhapra was buried in Karachi’s Safoora Goth graveyard yesterday after he passed away on Tuesday here. His funeral prayers were offered at Jamia Masjid Bilal in Gulshan-e-Iqbal’s Block 4-A.
He was 81. He leaves behind wife, three daughters, one son and many grandchildren.
Born into a mercantile family he had remained President of Karachi Press Club (KPC) for as many as five different terms in the 1980s.
He was also the former President of Karachi Union of Journalists (KUJ), Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) and Chairman All Pakistan Newspaper Employees Confederation (APNEC). Author of three books, which were mainly on country’s politics, he was one of the founders of Confederation of Asian Journalists’ Union (CAJU). Chhapra was Pakistan National Alliance’s (PNA’s) candidate for a Sindh assembly seat in the 1977 general elections. Chhapra suffered incarceration because of his strong commitment to humanitarian causes during his journalistic career spanning over five decades.
Despite old age, his mind was still fertile; he was loud, clear and coherent. KPC President Imtiaz Khan Faran, vice-president Saeed Sarbazi, Secretary Arman Sabir and others have expressed grief over Chhapra’s demise.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020