Noval Badaltay Rishtay - DHANAKA SHARIF
It would be of general public interest, especially the tax-payers, to know if a resident pir lives in the Prime Minister House presently. Nawaz Sharif’s pir of the past was the celebrated Dewana Baba of Dhanaka Sharif in Mansehra District. His real name was Rahmat Ullah. He died in 2008. In his second term as PM, Sharif had his village electrified, according to a source from that area. When Sharif exited in 1993, the only ‘souvenir’ he left behind for his successor Benazir Bhutto was Dewana Baba. BB must have believed that if the Baba got Sharif two terms in office, surely the pir’s prayers and blessings must have endowed her too. My source tells me she would trek the hilly terrain where the Baba lived holding a danda to beat his VVIP and other visitors with. The more the beating, the more the benedictions from the pir. Eventually, PM Benazir had a helipad constructed for her frequent commute. “Dhanaka Sharif was also connected with the outside world through the construction of a paved road on Benazir Bhutto’s orders,” says the source.