PESHAWAR: The members of Mrastial Leekwal, a literary and cultural organisation based in Malakand, have pledged to continue serving the cause of people.

The Mrastial Leekwal (ML) has recently held its biennial polls and elected around 25 members of its executive council. Noted Pashto poet Prof Abaseen Yousafzai got the majority vote for being the patron-in-chief of the organisation.

Sajid Afghan, Zafar Khan, Ghani Ghurzang and Sudhir Sada were elected members of the cabinet.

The newly elected members said that such organisations played an important role in peace building, creating awareness and social mobilisation.

Prof Abaseen urges poets, artists to help in formation of a progressive society

Shahzeb, a local resident and student of Malakand University, told this scribe that he and his friends attended regularly literary sessions of ML and learnt a lot of things from the senior writers. He said students benefited from the public library set up by ML in Batkhela.

“I have improved my habit of reading a lot. ML encourages me to share books with my other fellows too. I advise local students to participate in such gatherings to learn more about society,” said Shahzeb.

Bakht Rawan Umarkhel, a senior writer and co-founder of ML, said that active members of the organisation had swelled up to more than 100 but its impact was spread over to Dir, Kohistan, Swat, Shangla, Buner and other areas.

He said that Malakand had produced many personalities in almost every field including literature, art, culture and education. He said that ML had contributed to peace and cause of social service in the area.

The body meets every month for holding literary session. A large number of poets, writers and students attend its sessions. The ML also organises walks against polio, tuberculosis, environmental pollution, firing in the air and toy guns besides holding book fairs, art exhibition and tournaments.

Folk singer and poet Aslam Salik said that ML worked for peace, culture and literary trends with focus on creating awareness about public service, especially education.

He said that he being general secretary of ML would try to achieve the set targets. He said that ML had published Pashto translation of the celebrated book of Winston Churchill “The Malakand Field Force” and anthology of Malakand poets.

Published in Dawn, February 9th, 2018