By Zahiruddin
CHITRAL: The video of setting the traditional Chitrali cap to fire to lodge the protest against government has gone viral not only in the bounds of the district but it has also said to have proliferated to the Chitral communities in Peshawar, Islamabad, Karachi and even in the United Arab Emirates.
The lawyer Waqas Ahmed advocate had burnt his feather-appended white Chitrali cap after dousing it in gasoline last week when the KP Chief Minister Mahmood Khan did not take action the highly dilapidated Airport Road of the city on the occasion of one-day tour to the area.
The owners of a number of net cafes told Chitral Times that the footage of the burning Chitrali has been proved the best seller since the last week when the people waited in queues to transfer it to their mobile phone sets.
Muhammad Rahim Baig Laal, a fervent user of social media, said that some of the major social media websites registered tens of thousands of views of the footage and a very large number of users put their comments both in its favor and against.
Mr. Laal said that those supporting the action said that it was an innovative way to expose the inaction and indifference of the government towards a grievous problem while those antagonists contended that the lawyer had disparaged an important icon of Chitrali culture.
The road is in a worst state for the last five years where big ditches and bumps developed posed threats to the motorists and it also links the Garam Chashma and Karimabad valleys with the city, so it always remains busy with the commuters and the vehicles consequently spurring clouds of dust creating health problems for the residents.
Waqas Ahmed advocate, one of the daily users of the road, took the extreme step when the chief executive of the province did not take notice of the bumpy road despite the fact that he himself drove to the DC House after landing from his helicopter in the airport.
Mr. Ahmed said that he had been striving hard for the last couple of years to draw the attention of the government towards the bumpy road and on a number of occasions, he mobilized the local people to fill the large fissures with soil on self-help basis.
“When I came to know that the chief minister left the venue of DC house without taking any notice of the road even after the description of the road in the briefing of the deputy commissioner, I went to my home and lit my Chitrali cap on fire in protest while my little daughter made videography.
My purpose of burning the traditional cap was to register my protest and catch the attention of the large chunk of people towards the issue and it proved to be a successful practice as far awareness raising concerned but the government has yet to take any action.
By burning the cap, I also wanted to express my deep anguish over he inaction of the chief minister who had been presented a traditional Chitrali cap, appended with feather, in the function that he had attended in DC House”, he said.
The president of district bar association Chitral, Khursheed Hussain Mughal advocate, hailed the way of protest by his colleague and said that he had done a commendable move in which he succeeded and today not only the lawyer has rose the prominence but the issue has also been highlighted.
“If 60-year old lawyer in Brooklyn USA, David Buckel, can immolate himself by soaking his body in gasoline in April this year as a protest against the climate change, then why we cannot sacrifice one of our colleague even if he wanted self immolation”, he said in a light vein.
