Family complains about unfulfilled govt promises

 BKU martyr Dr Hamid Hussain

Speaker Asad Qaiser says haven’t forgotten commitments

PESHAWAR: Dr Hamid Hussain was hailed as a hero when it was reported that he exchanged fire with the attackers before embracing martyrdom  at the Bacha Khan University in Charsadda on January 20, 2016, but a year later his family is complaining that promises made to it by high-ranking government functionaries remain unfulfilled.

On the first anniversary of the terrorist attack on the university named after freedom fighter and non-violence campaigner Bacha Khan (Abdul Ghaffar Khan), Dr Hamid Hussain’s family has decided to speak for the first time about what it claims were broken promises. His father Lal Bahadur, who is a shopkeeper in Sherdadkhel locality in Swabi Khas, had until now forbidden his family members and relatives from protesting.

“After waiting for one year, we have decided to break our silence. Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, Speaker Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Asad Qaiser, provincial minister Shahram Tarakai and others made promises to us when they came to our village to offer condolences after my brother Prof Dr Hamid Hussain’s martyrdom through we had made no demands,” said Ashfaq Hussain, who had to quit his job in Saudi Arabia and return home to look after the family.

“We were promised that Dr Hamid Hussain’s widow who was holding a teaching job on contract basis at the Government Degree College in Mankai, Swabi, would be regularized. This hasn’t happened even though Imran Khan, Pervez Khattak and Asad Qaiser were approached and Malala Yousafzai too put in a word with the ruling PTI in the province,” explained Ashfaq Hussain.

“Speaker Asad Qaiser told me recently that even the Prime Minister cannot do this under the law,” he added.According to Ashfaq Hussain, another unfulfilled promise made to the family was that the University of Swabi would be renamed after Dr Hamid Hussain. “We were promised that a proper tomb would be built by the government on his grave. An engineer from C&W department paid a visit, but he never came back,” he complained.

He said his brother’s pistol with which he fired all 25 bullets loaded in it in the fighting against the attackers hasn’t been returned to the family. “Dr Hamid Hussain’s memories are attached with this pistol and it is an evidence of his bravery. It is also a proof that he died fighting the attackers,” Ashfaq Hussain argued. 

He said yet another broken promise is conferring a civil award to Dr Hamid Hussain. The 33 years old Dr Hamid Hussain, who had studied at the University of Peshawar and Bristol University in UK for his PhD in organic chemistry, had taught at the Bacha Khan University for three years. He was hired in September 2013 under an agreement with Higher Education Commission for one year and the contract was extended twice without regularizing his services. His family wants the government and the university to consider Dr Hamid Hussain’s service as regular and given his pension and other benefits to his widow.

The couple’s have two kids. Hashar Hussain is four years old and his sister Haseen Hussain is three years old.When contacted to comment on complaints made by Dr Hamid Hussain’s family, Speaker Asad Qaiser said he knew Dr Hamid Hussain personally as he had worked as a teacher at the Quaid-i-Azam School and College owned by him. “He was a committed, hardworking and disciplined person. He never came late to take his class, I have no words to praise him,” he remarked.

Asad Qaiser, who also belongs to Swabi, said some compensation was paid to Dr Hamid Hussain’s family by the government and work on fulfillment of other promises is underway. “There were some legal issues that were a hurdle in regularizing his widow’s job as special assistant at the college. We are trying to amend the law for her and many others too would be benefited once this is done through the provincial assembly. It is true that I told Dr Hamid Hussain’s brother that even the Prime Minister cannot do this in a legal way,” he said.

According to Asad Qaiser, he wasn’t aware about any promise that was made to rename University of Swabi after Dr Hamid Hussain or return his pistol to his family. “As for building the tomb, this project is in process, but these things take time,” he added.