Sabih’s achievements speak of his greatness and kindness. He has made the people and the country proud and deserves proper recognition and reward by the Crown. It is the recommendation and voice of the people whose hearts he has won by serving them honestly and winning their confidence. Negligence would be a great injustice.

Already people have started showering their love and affection on him. On June 20, 2004, he was given the Community Service Award for his outstanding services and tremendous contributions.  Rich tributes were paid to him on the occasion by renowned personalities, prominently Haroon Siddiqui of Toronto Star and Anwar Maqsood, a famous social and media figure of Pakistan, who was chief guest on the occasion.

Sabih is one of the Founders of Urdu Journalism and strong pillar of the Pakistani and South Asian community in Canada. He is Editor and Publisher of Pakeeza International and Director and Producer of Radio Meelan.  He deserves full credit for publishing regularly Pakeeza for 25 years and managing Radio Meelan for 30 years.

His wife Shahtaj Fatima shared his successes with her support and encouragement at all times. In fact the whole family worked as a formidable team. Even today the team works with the same spirit and hopes to achieve more. Their eyes are always set on the future and their aim to keep serving the community and humanity with full sincerity.  They are indeed an example for others. 

Sabih is very busy these days attending meetings held in his honour to pay rich tributes to him, recognize his contributions and celebrate the great success he achieved.

The community wants to assure him that he is not alone in the struggle and the people are always practically with him.

Javed Yusuf and Anwer Javed, another shining couple and example of the community, widely and deeply respected and recognized for their social and cultural contributions, hosted a dinner and Mushaira in honour of Sabihuddin Mansoor and Shahtaj Fatima at the Silver Spoon Restaurant here on July 4, 2004. It was held under the banner of Family Of The Heart (FOTH).  

There are many other couples prominent in the society and the community for their services and contributions including Mr & Mrs Maj Abbas of Muslim Welfare Centre, Shahid Hashmi, Chairman of Canpak Chamber of Commerce, and Seema Hashmi, Dr Jamil Dar and Dr Shehnaz Dar.

Javed Yusuf migrated to Canada in 1989. He is an internationally renowned personality, cartoonist, social figure and an intellectual with an amazing memory. His cartoons are published regularly in Pakeeza International. Exhibitions of his artistic works were held in Toronto and widely appreciated. His queen, Anwer Javed, is herself an active social worker and lends him a great helping hand. Her contribution in his success is the pivotal force.   

It was a select gathering of cream of intellectuals. Most of the guests were distinguished personalities and some came from far corners of Canada, United States and Holland. Prominent ones included Shahida Hassan, world famed poetess and writer from Pakistan, Hifzul Kabir Qureshi, Father of Urdu of North America, Jamilur Rehman from Holland, and Akram Mahmood from the United States.   

Dr Khalid Sohail, a famous personality, intellectual and psychiatrist, acted as the moderator.  The event was simply superb, highly impressive, most interesting and enjoyed by all.  His skill and experience added beauty to the successful proceedings. The young and old, new and experienced got equal chances to express themselves. It rarely happens and it happened that day. Javed Yusuf, Anwer Javed, Dr. Khalid Sohail, Pervaiz Salahuddin and other team members did their best and proved their mettle.

Those who took part in the Mushaira included Shahida Hassan, Hifzul Kabir Qureshi, Zamin Jafri, Dr Khalid Sohail, Akram Mahmood, Jameel-urrehman,  Aftab Bano, Rasheed Siddiqui, Nuzhat Siddiqui, Afzal Naveed, Atif Shikoh, Azad Danish, Rashid Nadeem, Rafi Raza and Akram Saqib.

Sabihuddin Mansoor highlighted his achievements and said he did what he felt necessary for Urdu and the community. In the beginning, resources were few and the challenges great. Without the family and people support it would not have been possible.

He said: “I am a producer, director, editor and publisher and not a poet but still I enjoyed the presentations very much. I thank all for the honour, recognition and award.”

He specially thanked Javed Yusuf and Anwer Javed for organizing this event and giving him great respect and recognition. Such love, affection and events are real source of encouragement, he added.

Shahida Hassan in her address remarked: “It was one of the best Mushairas I attended in Canada. I am greatly impressed. Such poets and poems are hardly seen and heard even in big Mushairas. The quality was excellent and presentation simply superb. We must support and encourage all those engaged in the promotion of Urdu and services of the community.”

Nuzhat Siddiqui, famous poet, introduced Shahida Hassan to the audience and said she is author of many books and a world famed poet. She highlighted Shahida’s works and contributions and said she touches all aspects of life and promotes peace and love. She recited two of Shahida’s famous poems to let the audience know the quality of her presentation. She said such intellectual gatherings help the society a lot.

Earlier, Hifzul Kabir Qureshi introduced Sabih to the audience and said that Sabih struggled really hard for promotion of Urdu journalism. He filled the vacuum felt by Urdu lovers in Canada.

He said: “There is a lot of negativism in most of our local journals and the quality is very poor. Pakeeza on the other hand is positive and has maintained its standard and quality for the last 25 years. This is a great achievement.  Toronto has the largest number of local journals and they must improve their quality. They can play an important role for the community, provided they change their approach, shun negativism and promote objective reporting.”

Kabir praised Sabihuddin Mansoor and Shahtaj Fatima and said: “The team did very well in fighting for the cause. Pakeeza enjoys confidence of the people because it is published regularly and is the real voice of the people. It has a set and positive policy.”

Hifzul Kabir Qureshi is called Father of Urdu of North America because he was the one who held international Urdu Mushaira in the late 1960s. He is founder of Anjuman-e-Urdu, which is the oldest literary body of North America. He laid the base for promotion of Urdu and the fruits are now in the shape of many literary bodies. The credit goes to him. Now Toronto is the hub of intellectuals and boasts as the biggest centre of Urdu in North America. There are many greats and shining stars here.

Dr Khalid Sohail praised the creative process-taking place in Toronto and said it must be encouraged. Only a creative person challenges and faces challenges. The credit of this event goes to Javed Yusuf, he stated.

He said he knows Sabihuddin Mansoor since the last 20 years and is greatly impressed by his struggle and contributions. We must support and encourage such leaders of our community, he added.

Dr Khalid Sohail, Rasheed Nadeem and Rafiq Sultan are founders of Family Of The Heart (FOTH), which was formed four years back. Pervaiz Salahuddin is a very active member and plans the meetings and dinners and selects venues. FOTH holds meetings in the last week of every month in which famous personalities visiting Canada or settled here are invited. The discussions are open and. issues taken up candidly without any formality. Interesting to note is that FOTH has no office bearers and members fit the multicultural definition in the real sense.  Only creative minds are made members