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Nations, as a rule, whereas such eminent personages are alive, err on the aspect of failing to offer their resulting from these excellent men and women within the numerous realms of human endeavor. Solely after Minerva’s owl has taken to wings and people rise above the relative darkness wherein incipient consciousness struggles, over many a yr, does realisation come up to right withheld recognition. However by that point, usually, sadly, the time to culturally and socially achieve from the minds of such redeemers has receded into ineffective fatuity. Lighting a candle within the midday of the day neither burnishes nor helps within the diminution of somber shadows of night time.
Born on 14th November 1943 in the home of Malik Hikmat Shah, Qambarkhel Afridi, in a comparatively non-decrepit but honourable abode, among the many inaccessible, unrestrained, crisp and free airs of Tirah, bred in dignified environment, partaking of unbounded scented environs of fierce independence, he grew as much as grow to be a beacon of Pashtoon identification within the footsteps of mighty friends. He stands tall within the shadow of indomitable spirits of freedom, regional rights and egalitarianism comparable to Bacha Khan, Abdus Samad Khan Achakzai, Afzal Khan Bangash, Wali Khan, Afzal Khan, Attaullah Mengal, GB Bizenjo and Akbar Bugti.
Lateef Khan Afridi who, by younger and outdated in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, the authorized fraternity and everybody else in Pakistan, aware of this humane, principled and dedicated stalwart, was recognized and respectfully addressed by his honorific sobriquet, ‘Lala’.
Freedom was in his blood and bones. As a scholar on the Peshawar College Regulation School he was rusticated for collaborating in 1964 in help of Fatima Jinnah throughout her contest within the not directly contested presidential elections towards Ayub Khan.
He started his politics as member of the Mazdoor Kissan Social gathering upholding peasant rights. In the course of the Seventies as a pacesetter of Ittehad-e-Qabail he championed voting rights for tribesmen and referred to as for merger of ex-Fatas with erstwhile NWFP.
After the ANP was twice banned, as soon as by Yahya after which by Bhutto, in 1979 Lateef joined the Ghous Bakhsh Bizenjo-led Pakistan Nationwide Social gathering (PNP) changing into its president for the erstwhile NWFP, now Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. Upon its merger with the ANP in 1986, he grew to become its Secretary Common and later its Senior Vice President. From 1997 as much as 1999 he remained a member of the Nationwide Meeting contesting from the NA-46 constituency of Khyber Company.
Till he was gunned down on sixteenth January 2023 within the precincts of Peshawar Excessive Court docket, ostensibly for causes of household vendetta, Lateef Afridi remained a torch-bearer of progressive activism, regional rights, rule of legislation and human rights. He at all times stood within the forefront of actions for the restoration of democracy and judicial supremacy taking part in a yeomanry position within the pro-democracy, anti-Ayub protests and the motion for the restoration of judiciary throughout 2007-2009.
5 occasions elected because the President of Peshawar Excessive Court docket Bar Affiliation he grew to become the President of the Supreme Court docket Bar Affiliation in 2020. But he at all times remained a hero unrecompensed sans any state civil award, by no means in search of or yearning for standing, place or fame. Males who uphold torches of principled unrighteousness are sometimes tempted with costs of their consciences. However Lateef Afridi put paid to worldly renown in favour of un-compromising dedication to integrity and unextinguishable freedom.
In a lifelong journey of a craving for fact, justice for his peoples, he at all times fought all that was unrighteous, and sought to steer a path of solidarity, humanity and inclusivity. He remained a staunch believer that misguided state insurance policies, ever since 1979, of in search of western strategic depth as a counterfoil to japanese threats, had turned the lands of the Pashtoons into ruinous battlegrounds over 4 a long time, ushering untold blood and loss main of Pashtoons astride the Durand Line.
He leaned in direction of the brand new, educated, youthful tribal forces represented in PTM, in search of true peace within the border areas, warning of impending risks of this space changing into but once more a brand new struggle zone within the evolving worldwide geostrategic developments. In 2022 he joined the NDM and championed the decision for an Worldwide Peace Convention to keep away from this area regressing as soon as once more into one other yard of huge energy rivalry with disastrous penalties for the realm and its peoples.
No chauvinist, he at all times sought bringing collectively of individuals of various cultures and languages inside an accommodative nationwide paradigm. From one finish to a different he remained till his final a nationalist, one who firmly believed that in cultural, literary and linguistic variety and unreserved lodging lay the reply to federal unison. Solely in inclusive partnership and belonging lodging have variegated nations, he was satisfied, proved to be vibrant economies and polities.
As a craving spirit he sought to carry peace not solely to his personal individuals however the nation as an entire, together with all uncared for minorities. He grew to become a centre for the righteous disadvantaged, talking up for the forgotten ‘lacking individuals’, for the mom who misplaced a youthful son, he proffered a scarf over her head, contending freed from cost courtroom instances for the benighted poor or these disadvantaged of justice. For nationalist causes he was a doyen, bestowing dignity and honour on timeless human quest for emancipation and welfare.
On tenth March 2023 in a Commemorative Memorial Operate in honour of Lateef Afridi held in Peshawar, leaders of varied political events together with PTI, ANP, PMLN, JUI, PTM and NDM in addition to members of civil society, authorized neighborhood and intelligentsia extolling Lateef Afridi forged gentle on his innumerable qualities of head and coronary heart.
Some verses from a poem, I Do Not Lament, However Have fun, recited by the creator are reproduced beneath:
“Gallant to the weak/Aware shone/The fallen foe with/Brocade adorned
This man amongst males/Fearless treads/Wielding the sword/Of untrammeled music
A hand of succor/Places a scarf over/A mom/Grievingly torn
Honest and boisterous/Method his/Lateef his presence/Lateef his fame
He has no identify/A metaphor of those/Mountains and vales/He grew to become
Wazir, Mahsud, Afridi/Khattak, Yousafzai/Bangash amongst these/Of burning fame
A wisp of cool/Winds of Kurram/Shawal, this nation/Pashtoon his area
Lateef Afreedi/A shamla he gave/All of them/Erect and tall
Royal gait/Sikaram tall/Let’s not bereave/However rejoice”
Printed in The Categorical Tribune, July 24th, 2023.
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