PESHAWAR: Even when they reach foreign thrones of royalty, many a Pashtun will remember famous poetry verses reminding them to “recall the mountains of beautiful Pakhtunkhwa.” The words reverberate even thousands of miles away, in Thailand, where a man from Swabi has recently become a member of parliament.
Sawab Khan Pathan devoted his life to social work in both his fatherland and the new country, which decades ago became his family’s home and in 2019 recognized his contributions by electing him to its highest legislative body.
Sawab Khan Pathan poses for a photograph with his wife during their most recent visit to Islamabad in July 2019. (Supplied)
During World War II, his father, Abdul Wahab, traveled with the British Indian Army as a hawaldar to Siam – today’s Thailand – to protect the Queen’s interests amid Japan’s invasion of Southeast Asia. He stayed there after the war, like many others who were unclear about their official belonging and citizenship following the partition of the Indian Subcontinent in 1947.
Wahab married and remained in Thailand, where his son Sawab Khan was born. The family’s husbandry business was going well, its members gained prominence and became involved in the local politics of Thap Sakae district in western Prachuap Khiri Khan province.
Wahab never returned to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, but he kept it with him and made sure his son would speak the language of his ancestors.
“Thailand is my country. My family and I contribute there in many ways and this country and people have given us identity and trust,” Sawab Khan told Arab News over the phone from Thailand on Tuesday. “Our roots are in Pakistan, a country of magnificent culture, centuries-old history and great people,” the 70-year-old said in old, pre-partition Pashto.
The family now regularly visits their “ancestors’ soil,” he said.
According to Sawab Khan’s distant relative, Sadiq Muhammad, they also come with help when natural disasters strike like they did after an earthquake devastated Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 2005 and floods in 2010.
“He is such nice and down to earth person and meets everyone with great warmth” Muhammad, a government school employee in Adina village in Swabi, told Arab News. “Whenever they come to the village, they actively participate in family functions and gatherings.”
As he now reached the Thai parliament, he is now also going to direct his energy to forge relations between Thailand and Pakistan, especially in the field of trade, Sawab Khan told Arab News.
