Abdul Hamid Chowdry

Posted By: Robin Parker
Date Posted: 25/07/2007

I was devastated this morning when I received an email telling me that Abdul had been killed in a car crash in Pakistan, on his way back to the airport.

Abdul and I went back a very long way, in fact as far as my first ever visit to Rochdale. I was then introduced to him as the new young Labour councillor for Central Ward, in the old County Borough of Rochdale. Years later, from a personal point of view he introduced me to the vibrant Rochdale rag trade of the eighties and enabled me to begin a small business that I ran for around four years.

I believe he was the first Asian councillor ever to win a seat in Rochdale and certainly he was in the new Metropolitan Borough, when he won Smallbridge and Wardleworth. He held several jobs in the Labour administrations. I think he could best be described as a maverick politician and he had many ups and downs both within the Labour Party and within the community, but he was totally committed to what he did.

Without doubt his passion was to forge the link with Sahiwal. There was much politicking around the development of this link at the time, both within the Asian and the white community, but I have not had much to do with it since I moved to Middleton. So I was delighted a few weeks ago, when I attended the latest fund raiser at Karim’s in my role as Deputy Mayor, to discover that peace has now well and truly broken out, with all parties pulling together. In fact I will never forget the look on Abdul’s face when I walked in wearing the chain and we embraced. I will treasure that moment for the rest of my life.

Next year is the 20th anniversary of the link. We said at Karim’s we would have a good do for that. We must now make it really special and a memorial to the man who did so much to make the link a reality.