THATTA: An skilled artisan, known for his beautiful carving work on traditional wooden swings, Nawaz Wadho, has warned he will commit self-immolation along with his family of seven if state, civil society and philanthropists do not come to his rescue and help his six-year-old daughter Malala Raho get back her vision.

The dejected Wadho, whose family members are well known in lower Sindh for their extraordinary wood carving work on swings since several generations, distributed a written statement attached with medical prescriptions and laboratory test reports among media persons at local press club the other day which said his daughter, eldest among seven siblings, had optic nerve and visual pathway disorder, which had rendered her completely blind.

He said that his family had been passing through its most traumatic days since Malala went blind about four years ago.

Wadho said that he approached Pakistan Peoples Party MNA Syed Ayaz Ali Shah Sheerazi, Raho tribal chief Ismail Raho, who was sitting provincial minister, for help. They made promises to get special fund of the chief minister approved for the treatment of Malala in some foreign country but they failed to keep their word.

Dejected father warns of en masse suicide if no one helps his daughter

He said that before seeking help from PPP stalwarts, he had somehow succeeded to meet then Thatta SSP Fida Hussain Mastoi who bore expenses from his own pocket for showing his daughter to ophthalmologists at some top hospitals in Karachi who diagnosed her with the serious eyesight disorder and recommended treatment abroad.

He said that since that day he had knocked at doors of all wealthy families of the area to beg alms for his daughter’s treatment but no one come to his help.

Shedding tears, Wadho said that he had expended everything including his poor belongings in his small abode in Gul Mohammad Raho village near Mirpur Bathoro town and lost work because of prolonged disappearances from the workplace on account of his daughter. Now, he had no work to earn bread for his starving children because his clients had turned away from him, he said.

Wadho and his family of three sons and four daughters made a fervent appeal to PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, Sindh chief minister and philanthropists to come to their rescue, otherwise, they had no other recourse but to commit self-immolation.

Published in Dawn, July 1st, 2022