Bashir
Bilour: the lion slain
By Dr
Mohammad Taqi
December
23,2012
The Awami
National Party (ANP) has lost one of its bravest leaders. Senior provincial
minister of the Khyber-Pukhtunkha Bashir Ahmed Bilour was martyred this past
weekend. One of his party colleagues and a fellow Peshawari said: the lion of
Peshawar has been slain.
Bashir
Ahmed was born on August 1, 1943 in the walled city of Peshawar in mohallah
Hodah inside the old Ganj gate to Bilour Din sahib. He came from the prominent
business and trader family of Peshawar called the Kalals. To my generation he
was Bashir Lala, or the elder brother , but to his peers and most of the common
Peshawaris he just remained Bashir jan - the dear Bashir. The bereaving
Peshwaris are lamenting: Bashir jan tannay barri zidyadti keeti aiy - this is
not fair Bashir jan!
My first
recollection of the politician Bashir Lala is from a 1977 election poster, when
I believe he was contesting a provincial assembly seat on the National
Democratic Party (NDP)/Pakistan National Alliance candidate. The PNA ended up
boycotting the provincial elections. But Bashir Lala and his older brothers
Haji Ghulam Ahmed and Ilyas Ahmed, presently a federal minister and senator,
respectively, had joined the National Awami Party (NAP) -and by extension the
Pashtun nationalist movement- somewhere in the early 1970s. His younger brother
Aziz Bilour remained in civil service and never did join politics though there
came times that all four brothers were imprisoned by the government of the time
for their political affiliation. The NAP was banned and disbanded but Bashir
Lala and his family remained committed to Baacha Khan and Wali Khan's political
thought. The ANP was formed in 1986 after the merger of the NDP, Mazdoor Kissan
Party, Awami Tehrik and Pakistan National Party. Bashir Lala was to later
become the provincial president of the ANP.
Today
Bashir Lala is remembered for the five consecutive elections he won. I saw him
at his finest after his first election and the first and only election defeat
in 1988. He was as gracious in defeat as he was in his five wins. The ANP
morale was down as it was routed in the 1988 polls in Peshwar valley. That is
where the work horse Bashir Lala came into picture. He crisscrossed Peshawar
alleys to reach out, support and encourage the party cadres. If his oldest brother had the social suave to
reach out to the Peshawar families it was Bashir Lala's political muscle that
held together the ANP election machine in Peshawar from the non-party-based
local bodies election of the 1980s to a thumping victory in the 1990 general
elections. Peshawar city has traditionally been a stronghold of the assorted
Muslim Leagues and then the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP). Having lost his first
election to Syed Ayub Shah of the PPP,Bashir Lala was truly the architect of
the Pashtun nationalists finally wrestling away Peshawar from the League and
the PPP. While deeply inspired by Wali Khan he was an extremely effective
traditional politician who understood the complexities of a large city and the
problems of its people. He reached across language and sectarian barriers and
stood up for his constituents regardless of the party affiliation. But he was
one of the few leaders who were readily accessible to party workers whenever they
needed him.
When the
ANP secured a majority in the 2008 provincial elections he was one of the front
runners for the chief ministership. Some Peshawaris complain that if he was not
a Hindko speaker he may have secured the top slot. But Bashir Lala was not only
above the parochial divisions and very secular in outlook personally but he was
also a very pragmatic politician and not an ideologue in any sense. Not an
ideologue till perhaps an ideology of hate befell his city and the province. He
became ideologically committed to fight the obscurantists with whatever,
whenever and wherever it took. If Mian Iftikhar Hussain is the face of the
anti-Taliban ANP Bashir Lala was its soul. In a country bogged down by
confusion over what to do about the Taliban menace his was a clear vision and
message: fight and trounce them for their thought and savage means are
incompatible with anything modern.
Lately we
have heard the Pakistani security establishment ostensibly lamenting that the
civilians do not show leadership against terrorism. Bashir Lala was a civilian
politician who lead from the front knowing full well that it would cost him his
life. He had told his wife, the daughter of the Peshawari steel magnate the
late Gul Muhammad Khan, that if my dead body has wounds on the back, you must
not see my face. But as we know he took the bomb shrapnel on the chest. His
brothers, his wife and his two sons,Usman and Haroon, along with his compadres
in the ANP are proud of Bashir Lala. To me this is nothing new. Whether it was
the bombings in Peshawar in the 1980s or the siege of the city's Shia in 1992
Bashir Lala would always be on the frontline. He would barge in with true grit
and not leave till the job was done. He always did his part as he has done this
time. But can his resolve and example be followed? He is the last fallen along a perilous path
on which Salmaan Taseer and indeed Benazir Bhutto were slain but would
certainly not be the last one. While continuing to play footsie with its
jihadist proxies the security establishment is passing the hot potato of
decision making to the civilians as their cower under fear and political
expediency.
Gunter
Grass had noted somewhere that it is a crime to hope when there are no reasons
for hope. I am not about to commit that crime. I really do not know what the
fates have in store for Peshawar but RIP Bashir Lala, you will forever in the
hearts of the Peshawaris wherever we are.
- originally published in the Daily Times, Pakistan
