Shared will: Put out your bat, put down your gun

A tribal man’s unique tribute to Philip Hughes and a message for peace and literacy

KHAR: While the world pays tributes to cricketer Phil Hughes who died recently after being hit by a ball on his head, a man from Pakistan’s tribal regions has found a unique way of doing the same.

He is paying a tribute to the Australian cricket star in his own tribal style, by putting out both his bat and his gun, a Kalashnikov, outside his home in Salarzai, Bajaur Agency. In so doing, he gives a strong message of peace as well.

Hailing from Bajaur Agency, Muhammad Riaz Khan is an Australian CSU Wagga Alumni in M Phil in animal science. Khan is the only Pakistani who won the Bill Gates scholarship for 2013-14 for his research on milk production from buffaloes in Pakistan. He has also kept his two caps outside his home with the gun and the bat - one which he wore during his study period in Australia, and the one he wears presently, a cap sporting the logo of an Australian project funded by the Bill Gates Foundation.

When asked why he did so, Khan said that his main purpose is to show solidarity with the Australian cricket star. Khan himself has played cricket during his stay in Australia from 2011 to 2013.

People around the globe have been their bats out to commemorate the life of the promising cricketer gone too soon. The hashtag #PutOutYourBats has been trending globally.

Khan has done the same as a goodwill gesture. But perhaps the stronger message is this - by keeping his gun out, he means to show the world, especially Pakhtuns, “that we can only progress when we keep our gun down”, he said.

In Khan’s opinion “the use of guns has destroyed society, and has taken away peace of our home land. We must show the world that use of guns is not the solution to our problems. Our problem can only be solved if we keep down our gun and take books in our hands.”

Talking to The Express Tribune, Khan said that there is a common proverb in the Pakhtun society about the gun being the law (Topak zama qanon). “But now that the world has changed, we should change our behaviour, and should work for the promotion of education,” he said.

When asked how education can be promoted with educational institutions being destroyed, teachers been targeted and people sending their girls for education to Karachi, he said that these challenges can still be overcome with a strong shared will.

Giving details of his struggle for the promotion of education in the troubled Bajaur Agency, he said that he has a small charity-based set-up where small amounts of donations are collected for repairing existing school buildings. “We, in our village, have made toilets in the girls’ school instead of applying for government assistance,” he said, adding that now they are collecting money to establish a maternity hospital in the area that will have a CT scan machine and other major facilities for women. “Many women are dying due to lake of health facilities in Fata,” he said.

“If we educate our tribal children, they can bring about real change. It is not only the government’s duty to work to spread education; it is also upon us to sponsor education,” said Khan.

Citing his own example as a possible inspiration for young people in similar circumstances, he said that although he went to a public school, he managed to get his higher education from New Zealand and Australia, even though he belongs to a poor family and lived in a mud house here.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 6^th, 2014.