CHITRAL: Luke Rahmat is the first individual from the Kalash valleys to contest the elections on a general seat of the provincial assembly from Lower Chitral as previously they could only think of a reserved seat on non-Muslim quota from the platform of a political party.

In his early 40s and being one of the first few graduates from the Kalash community, Mr Rahmat has to his credit experience in rural development as he has been associated with Ayun and Kalash valleys development programme for over a decade.

Talking to reporters at the Chitral Press Club, he said he had ventured into the poll arena though he was not hopeful about his success due to the numerical inferiority of his community. However, he said his initiative would embolden other young people of his community to compete in every walk of life.

Rahmat said his decision to contest elections on PK-2 from a Muslim majority area would show to the outer world that how the small and handful minorities with primitive culture and ways of living were well-integrated into the major community and were free to practice their rituals as per their norms.

He said Muslims and Kalash faced the same problems as they lived in the same environment and used the same physical infrastructure in the form of roads, water supply schemes, irrigation channels and faced poverty on equal scale. He added both the communities were vulnerable to the same natural disasters.

“Their degree of interest is the same and one cannot be separated from the other, so it is quite natural that I must hope for votes from my Muslim brethren who know about my faculties and capabilities in the field of rural development.”

“I have a comprehensive plan to resolve the issues of development in order of priority in the constituency as I have carried out a thorough study of them during my career as development worker and my current job of a blogger on social media platforms,” he said.

Regarding the development of tourism in the Kalash valleys, Rehmat said the recently-established Kalash Area Development Authority would be designed such that it took prompt, practical and rational steps in the tourism sector retaining the very essence of Kalash culture.

He vowed to take measures like establishing an endowment fund of Rs4 billion so that resource mobilisation could be made soon after a disaster struck. He said in the past, it took more than 40 days to restore the vehicular traffic, water supply schemes and irrigation channels as due to a centralised system such projects were approved after a long time.

To find your constituency and location of your polling booth, SMS your NIC number (no spaces) to 8300. Once you know your constituency, visit the ECP website [here][1] for candidates.

Published in Dawn, February 5th, 2024