The history of Pashtuns is a history of constant struggle of a people for their rights. Post-partition, this struggle, in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (formerly NWFP) region of Pakistan was mostly spearheaded by leftist political elements. In fact, the leftist elements in KPK pre-date the creation of Pakistan People’s Party which later became the torch-bearer of the Left in Pakistani politics. Today, it seems hard to imagine that once this region was the bastion of non-violent liberal politics.
In past two decades, KPK has been a source of a stream of bad news, news of religious extremists taking over parts of it imposing inhumane conditions on the populace, news of hard-hitting reaction by the armed forces of Pakistan resulting in millions of people getting displaced in the conflict, news some of which I just don’t find the heart to mention here. Every bit of such news has been very hard for me to take since, hailing from Punjab, I always considered KPK my second home; a place that was, for many Punjabis like myself, a scenic refuge away from the mundane life.
Alas, today’s generation is probably deprived of the experience KPK had to offer prior to the onslaught of extremists (and nothing will make me happier to know that I am wrong and the things are still exactly the same). I have been to almost every part of Pakistan but I was surprised to find out the liberal attitudes in the KPK region. Despite all their overtly religious outlook, in my personal experience, there were no one in Pakistan more liberal than Pashtuns. I am proud to say that some of the people who initiated me on the path of liberalism by way of showing and teaching me the true values of liberalism were Pashtuns.
To some non-Pashtuns, especially my Punjabi fellows, this may come as a surprise because out there in Punjab the image of a Pashtun we had was of an extremely conservative religious person. Half of that image, according to my own experience, is true but not all of it. A vast majority of Pashtuns I have encountered in my life are practicing religious folks who hardly ever miss a prayer in a day. But what I also experienced was total lack of any desire to impose their religious values on strangers. I would love to share two of my many memories of the generosity of the Pashtun spirit.
On a journalistic assignment, I was once visiting the town of Takht Bhai in the company of an Ahmadi colleague. We were having lunch at a chappal kabab place. It was almost time for the noon prayer. We were sharing the table with an elderly Pashtun. I asked him if he could tell me where the nearest mosque was. He turned out to be the Imam of the local mosque and offered to escort us to the mosque after he finished his meal. When he did we got out of the restaurant and while I kept walking with the Imam, my Ahmadi friend stopped right outside the restaurant. I whispered to the Imam that my friend won’t be joining us because he was Ahmadi. That stopped the Imam short in his tracks. He turned around and shouted to my friend, “you worship the same Allah, right? So, come along!” Which he did with a wide grin on his face.
At another time, while I was a college student, a bunch of us were travelling through the valley of Swat in the middle of the month of Ramadan. None of us were fasting and it was the Zia era. There was no food available to be bought. Starving, we saw an apple orchard right by the road so we stopped the car and went into the orchard. There was not a soul around. We started pocketing the apples that had fallen off the trees when we saw a Pashtun, probably the owner of the orchard, rushing to us yelling in Pashto something which must have translated something like “thieves”. When he reached us, he asked the obvious question; what did we think we were doing? We told him we were hungry and there was no food available. When he hinted at the fact that this was the month of Ramadan and we were supposed to be fasting, I offered him the Shara’i excuse of travelers not being obligated to fast. He asked us to wait and came back with a paper bag. He started picking apples from the trees, bagging them while delivering a mini lecture to us on a mix of why you can’t just enter an orchard and pick fruit off the ground most of which is rotten anyway and travelers travelling in air-conditioned cars should not resort to quoting Shari’a exemptions on fasting. He handed the bag to us when it was full of apples. When we offered him money for the apples, he said, “oh now you want me take money for helping you commit a sin? Go on your way! You are a bunch of thieves but still my guests.” Those were the sweetest apples I have ever had, made sweeter by the kindness of a great man.
Such was the kind and generous Pashtun spirit that I kept encountering on my numerous trips to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. I hope that despite all the stabs taken at it by so many, that spirit is still alive and someday I will, once again, enjoy the great Pashtun hospitality.
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