My memory takes me back to childhood when a Sikh physician, Mohan Singh, at Pir Baba, now in District Bunair Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province , saved my life. During a picnic in the scenic valley of Chamla, I contracted dysentery and was dehydrated to the point of nearly losing consciousness. Bunair was more backward then than it is today, with no healthcare facilities. My parents panicked, being their only child.
The nearest medical help was at the village of Pacha, where Mohan Singh practiced. It never rains but when it pours, and being monsoon, most of the roads were flooded. I remember my mother in tears while our late loyal driver, Abdul Wahid, bravely drove our English Triumph car across all the flooded culverts to safety. Late Mohan Singh not only treated me, but it was in their home where we spent the night, and this is my humble tribute to him and his family, without whom my revival would have been next to impossible as a 4-year-old child with scant memories of the ordeal that my parents faced.
This anecdote is yet another example of a minority member contribution to humanity that the people of Bunair reciprocated where none of the minority members faced persecution and due to political reasons of partition that resulted in the largest human migration of the century.
Dr. Sewara is today contesting a provincial assembly seat from Bunair, where she also runs a charitable clinic. I don’t know this Pakistani daughter being from the Hindu faith, but her father, Aun Parkash, I once met at the Parliament lodges along with my cousin, Dr. Shah Wakil Jan, from the ancient village of Bhai in Tehsil Gadizai in Buner, who happened to be his class fellow during their student days together.
The politics of hatred and violence have taken Pakistan nowhere, and it is high time we learn lessons from Bunair, which, despite being a conservative society, remained progressive and highly tolerant of minorities, whether Hindu or Sikh, who pride themselves on being known in the society as proud Pakistanis of Pukhun origin rather than a minority of Hindu or Sikh faith.
As I close my write-up, I wish Sewara all the best in her political journey as a proud Pakistani daughter and hope the state is sensitive enough to ensure that the politics of hatred and divisiveness based on caste, creed, color, or faith are shunned for good in the forthcoming elections, which sadly are more marred with violence than they look to be harbingers of Unity and Peace. Long Live Pakistan.🇵🇰
