KP government stops, individuals undertake project

MARDAN: The previous ANP-PPP provincial government had decided to identify the graves of heroes of Pakhtuns and build mausoleums but Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-led coalition government has stopped the project, sources said.
Late nationalist leader Mohammad Azam Khan Hoti, father of former chief minister Ameer Haider Hoti, had requested the journalists to help him in identifying the grave of Khan Gajju, a hero of Pakhtuns belonging to the Yousafzai tribe buried in Swabi district.
When the grave was identified and he was provided the details, Azam Khan requested the then ANP-led provincial government to construct mausoleum on the grave of Khan Gajju, also known as Gajju Khan.
The provincial government in the supervision of Engineer Ejaz Khan Yousafzai, who is a well-known Pashto poet and writer and director at the Pakhtunkhwa Highways Authority (PHA), later built a beautiful mausoleum on Khan Gajju’s grave and handed it over to the Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan for its upkeep.
Later, the government started construction work on the graves of other Pakhtun heroes like Malik Ahmad Khan Baba, the chief of the Yousafzai tribe and his adviser Sheikh Milli Baba and others.
However, sources said that when the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf formed the government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa after the 2013 general election, the work on the project came to a halt.
Now some well-known personalities including Engineer Ejaz Khan Yousafzai, poet Abaseen Yousafzai, known paediatrician Dr Abdul Hameed, former Institute of Radiotherapy and Nuclear Medicine (IRNUM), Peshawar head Dr Sher Mohammad Khan, senior journalist Rahimullah Yusufzai and some professors and lecturers of the Abdul Wali Khan
University Mardan have decided to identify the graves of the Pakhtuns heroes in an individual capacity, raise funds and construct mausoleums on their graves. Besides, they also plan to highlight the achievements of these personalities.