Peshawarites thank Bashir Bilour

THE FRONTIER POST

By:Muhammad Ali Sheikh

It has been years since Peshawar is in a grip of terrorism. A number of brave sons of Peshawar were martyred in different terrorist incidents. Men like Malik Saad and Sifwat Ghayur died at the hands of terrorists and they will always be remembered in golden words whenever it comes to talking about brave men of Pakhtun soil. Even small children were killed in attacks on school buses and other incidents. However, I have never witnessed such a sorrowful and mournful environment in Peshawar as it was on Saturday evening and throughout the day on Sunday. Peshawarites were in grip of grief, agony, anguish as they saw their beloved Bashir Ahmed Bilour being laid to rest in his ancestral graveyard. In this column of mine I have always tried to highlight the problems the people of Peshawar face in their daily life. Even I was ready to highlight another problem however, the death of Bashir Ahmed Bilour forced me to change my mind and start writing on this tragic incident and its aftereffects on Peshawar. Bashir Bilour was a person who had no personal opponents but only had political opponents who also were always full of praise for the Bashir Ahmed Bilour both as a human being and as a politician. He was always the first person to visit the spot of any terror incident in City and was also the first one all the time to speak against these incidents. Bilour was instrumental in changing the look of the Peshawar. He was Senior Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa but as a son of Peshawar he always tried his best to do everything possible to make Peshawar once of the best cities. Bashir Bilour shut the mouths of those who termed him anti-Pakistan on his remarks on Urdu by inaugurating the highest national flag of Pakistan in Jinnah Park. Whenever, I pass by the 185 feet high national flag I feel proud to be a Pakistani it was Bashir Bilour who give this opportunity to feel so. For the first time we saw a digital fountain in Peshawar thanks to Bashir Bilour. The fountain is installed at Jinnah Park and people will remember their beloved leader whenever the water of the fountain will dance in colourful lights especially at night time. Renaming a number of chowks (squares) by the name of famous personalities was another achievement of Bashir Bilour. Such two chowks are Ajmal Khattak Chowk in Hayatabad and Ahmad Faraz Chowk at G.T. Road. It will be injustice if I do not mention Rescue 1122. Bashir Bilour was influential in establishment of the first ever rescue service of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa keeping in mind the need of the service with increasing number of terror incidents. And he was taken into a 1122 ambulance to the Lady Reading Hospital where he breathed his last. However, the same ambulance may have been involved in saving a large number of lives thanks to Bashir Bilour. I remember his last words about Peshawar in KP Assembly were about the construction of underpasses at University Road. It his ANP colleague MPA Atif-ur-Rehman had asked the government to force the authorities to complete the construction of these two underpasses as it was creating hurdles for motorists. Bashir Bilour stood up and told the House that he had already directed the authorities to complete the work in 60 days starting from the day he was addressing the assembly. His vision was to make Peshawar a City of Flowers again and now it is the duty of not only this government but the duty of the next government to fulfill his dream. We Peshawarites thank Bashir Ahmed Bilour from the bottom of our hearts for striving throughout his life for the betterment of our lives.