TIMERGARA: The 10th death anniversary of Shamsul Qamar, a political figure of Lower Dir, will be observed here on Monday (today).

Mr Qamar had died of cardiac arrest on the polling day on Feb 18, 2008, while he was contesting the general election for both the National Assembly and provincial assembly seats from Lower Dir as an independent candidate.

“We can’t forget our ‘Baba’ who socially trained and educated us to the best,” Saira Shams, the eldest daughter of late Qamar, told this scribe here on Sunday. Ms Saira, who is a PTI district councillor, said it was her mother Farhad Bibi, 48, who not only looked after the family, but also assumed the charge of her husband’s business.

Late Qamar was an active member of ANP, but left the party after differences with some of its local leaders. The family joined PTI after his death. Ms Saira’s younger sister, Dr Sumera Shams, was the only woman MPA from Dir.

Late Shams’s another daughter, Noorena Shams, 21, was the first cyclist to win a silver medal for the country in the junior Olympics. She has so far won 63 gold, 24 silver and five bronze medals in different games.

Ms Saira, a physically-challenged woman, said that they had seen many hardships, but her mother never lost heart and continued to raise the family to a higher status.

Published in Dawn, February 18th, 2019