PESHAWAR: Though the well-maintained Ghani Khan Park provides the visitors with a serene environment, the fading verses of the poet on the marble slabs placed at different points missed the authorities’ attention during the park’s recent renovation work.

The family park located in Hayatabad’s Phase 2 was built in August 2009 in the memory of the poet, whose verses drenched in love for nature always inspire youth to return to love and respect the nature.

“The verses on the marble slabs are barely visible. The keepers of the garden should fix them afresh,” demanded Zarka Haleem and Muntazar Ali, a couple visiting the park.

Ghani Khan’s love for flowers is reflected in the garden he grew in his Charsadda hometown, which contains different varieties of roses. His poetry is never completed without mention of flowers.

Ghani Khan was a lover of natural beauty and his aesthetic sense was reflected in his writings and art, Farzand Khan, a local artist, said.

The Peshawar Development Authority (PDA) recently carried out renovation work in the Ghani Khan Park but did not bother to restore the poetic pieces inscribed on some marble slabs displayed in the garden.

‘Jannat auo Duniya’ (the world and the paradise) is of one of the poems written in red on a slab still hanging out, but the script has almost been erased.

A quatrain of Ghani Khan in Pashto on a wooden plank at the entrance of the garden, however, welcomes the visitors with a profound message showing wonder on the unequal divine distribution of things in the mortal garden.

The rough English version says, ‘out in this garden, some are placed in the position of roses, some get status of pine trees while some are bestowed with the seat of bushes. Similarly, a few become garlands and many are grown around the edges of streams, some are decorated with golden crowns on their heads yet others are destined to go insane forever. One has to accept whatever falls onto his/her fate’.

Shaista Jabeen told this scribe that she along with her family visited the park almost every second day and enjoyed some pleasurable moments in the serene environment as the capital city lacked public parks.

“The marble slabs inscribed with the Ghani Khan’s verses should be restored as it will lend an extra beauty to the flowers. Every hedge should have a separate slab containing couplets, reflecting the Ghani Khan’s idea of natural beauty,” she suggested.

An official of PDA on condition of anonymity said Ghani Khan’s poems would be inscribed on slabs and placed in different safe corners of the garden.

Published in Dawn, April 5th, 2021