The kid from Kashmir’s done good...

THESE are exciting times for Oldham — Shoab Akhtar

MARTYN MEETS... Shoab Akhtar, Oldham Council deputy chief FROM the strife-torn border region of Kashmir on the India-Pakistan border to the corridors of power at the Civic Centre in West Street, Oldham, is a journey few of us can contemplate.

Yet Councillor Shoab Akhtar, deputy executive leader of Oldham Council and former Mayor of Oldham, has not only made that move, but has done it with commendable grace - and a good deal of humility and humour.

This is a man who took his wife and family to his home village only to witness the death of nine young people when a terrorist bomb exploded after Friday prayers. He has vivid recollection of the experience - and how could you not?

“The perpetrators were caught on the border as they tried to cross into India. They had put a bomb under a tandoor, which they positioned next to a street entertainer who was with the children as the adults left the mosque.

“What did they achieve? Nothing. Nothing at all.” He shakes his head in despair at the loss of young innocents and the waste of two lives by young men who will spend the rest of their days behind bars.

“Islam teaches us not to take a single life, yet these things happen in the name of religion and it is so wrong. So wrong.”

That kind of experience is something few of us will ever know, let alone even begin to understand. If there are mental scars, they don’t show.

He is a man in every sense for every season. When he was six, the wide-eyed Shoab picked up a pen for the first time and sat a desk for the first time at his school in Werneth.

It was the first of many life-changing experiences for this 44 year old whom, I suspect, will have an impact on Oldham for many years.

“And there was electricity everywhere in Oldham. Power came to my village only six months before I left, so everything was new to me.”

He is in politics to make a difference, to improve the Oldham we all love, for the good of everyone who is lucky enough to live here. He is a long way from the travails of Kashmir, but those formative years have left an indelible imprint.

He has made a start, first by becoming a councillor and cabinet member, taking on the task of looking after the town centre. He sits in meetings with movers and shakers, helping to shape policy and leading from the front.

And all this at a time when Oldham town centre has undergone the biggest change any of us have seen since the concrete monstrosity that was St Peter’s shopping centre, decades ago.

He has undergone a massive personal transition to arrive at this fulfilling point in his adult life.

The life-changing experience of moving to a new country with his mother Fateh Begum and his three brothers to meet up with his father - who had been working here for several years - was to change his life forever.

He became the first person in the family to attend university, graduated with a degree in chemical engineering and would most certainly have got a Masters too, had his social conscience not kicked in.

“My father had stopped work, I had a new younger sister and two new brothers and I knew I had to get out and work. I had always wanted to work in chemical engineering and when I arrived at Bradford all but one of the graduates who were leaving that year found a job in the industry.

“When I got my degree in 1997 the world was a much-changed place and only one of my group got a job.”

He took a post as a classroom assistant in Glodwick, then moved to a similar post at a secondary school. Since 1999 he has worked for social housing provider Great Places.

Shoab joined the Labour Party in the early 1990s and first stood for a council seat in 1999 - which he lost by 70 votes to the incumbent, Chris Shyne. Twelve months later he won a seat in Werneth.

For the past three years he has held the town centre brief — almost a poisoned chalice at a time the centre of Oldham was going through one of the most traumatic times anyone can remember.

Yet he took it on wholeheartedly: “We have to make our town centre work, not just for now but for future generations. We want a sustainable town centre that will stand the test of time.

“We are putting together a team which will work together with the people and the businesses to make Oldham a better place for everyone. There is so much happening, so many exciting developments. The business people have been wonderful, fantastic. They have put up with so much.”

So why politics? “Simple really, I wanted to make a contribution. Initially my family was not keen on me getting into public life, especially my father.

“He accepted it was what I wanted to do and gave me some fatherly advice — ‘If someone wants help, then you must try to help them. I don’t want anyone saying to me that you didn’t try’.

“He never said I had to help, because this is life, this is politics, and it is not always possible to please everyone and achieve everything. But I hope I have tried and I hope I haven’t let down anyone.”