Naseebullah Khan
Professionally, he is a Professor of Nephrology__ in the literary field, he has written around twenty books on various areas of Novels, comparative analysis of different literary figures of the Pashto language, and travelogues. The under review book is political. Dr. Liaquat Taban has been a worker of a Nationalist party during his student politics___it has helped him write on this area. The book ‘ relationship among politics, economics, literature and the prosperity of the Pashtuns’ is a volume of 112 pages (Written in Pashto) of comparative analysis of these areas along with the distresses which the nation has been suffering. He has shed light on the relationships of literature, economics, and politics and has further linked it with the Pakhtuns. The writer has admirably pinpointed the world war economy alongside the comparison of China, and America in military and economic sectors. He talks of alliance politics and mentions only the Aukus agreement while at the same time, the writer has ignored the most important alliances against China such as the Quad, the B3W, and the global gateway. As for as the Pashtun belt (In both Afghanistan and Pakistan) is concerned, the writer has deeply highlighted its Dams, Rivers, mountain ranges along with its natural resources and geostrategic importance which connects South Asia with Central Asia. He has also pointed out that the world powers have always an eye on the natural resources concerning the Uranium of Afghanistan. The tipping point of the book is its conclusion in which Dr. Liaquat Taban has put some pertinent queries concerning the current miseries of the Pashtuns. He is of the view that at different junctures of history the Pashtun had been the sole authority of their land, for instance during the time of Mir Wais Hotak, Ahmad Shah Abdali, and King Zahir Shah. Unfortunately, they did not focus on the economic well-being of the people. This observation carries weight as, throughout history, the Pashtun’s leadership has focused more on the military rather than the economic development of their people and state. Moreover, he is criticizing that national narcissism has damaged it by arguing that we are still living in self-gimmicks that we had brave forefathers. He says that Pakhtuns are avaricious and that despite the use of money for productive purposes in society we used million of rupees on marriages and other customs. He further criticizes the present literacy figures who are reticent on the basic problems of the Pashtuns and write on aestheticism yet. Despite these points, the book has many shortcomings. This might be due to the reason that Dr. Liaquat Taban is professionally a medical doctor and whatever he has written in literature, had been revolving around poetry, comparative analysis of literary figures, and travelogue. This book is the first that has covered different topics. On page 12 the author says that theoretically, there is no comparison of Politics and economics and are two different disciplines. While, on page 23, he negates his assertion by saying that a robust economy needs a strong government, non_violence, peace, no strikes, continued policies, investors friendly environment, and absence of corruption. Here, he has interlinked both subjects. The author has also shed light on world economies and their forms. He talks of economic systems like socialism, capitalism, and communism but is silent over the Islamic economic system and more importantly on the economic system of Pakistan and Afghanistan which is the focus of the book. Moreover, he has talked about the Afghanistan economy but has failed to point out the causes of floundering of it. The most important chapter of the book is about the CPEC. The book focuses on the Pakhtuns more, regrettably, he has failed to point out that in a total of 64 billion dollars projects, how much will be spent in Pakhtun areas? Moreover, he speaks of Lahore Metro but did not mention why Quetta metro was suspended which was going to be established through the CPEC. Apart from this, Dr. Liaquat Taban is silent over the role of Pakhtun nationalist and religious parties on their sinful silence and incompetency by handling the CPEC at its initial phase. However, it is a nice addition in Pashto literature and paves a ray of hope that the Pashtun intelligentsia will divert their energies in highlighting the pains of the nation__and aware not only the common Pashtuns but also the world about the natural assets of the Pashtun belt. I expect that such books would help open the eyes of the Pashtun leadership and the ruling class to focus on the education of the masses together with the economic progress of the laymen.
