Dr. Syed Mehboob
Political and Economic Analyst
http//:www.thenewslark.com
drmehboob.thenewslark@gmail.com
Pakistani women, in terms of talent, abilities, and character, are no less than women of any other part of the world. Some of them performed extraordinarily and left a strong effect on their services, high morale, talent, and community development. Mohtarma Riffat SwatiSahiba was among those women who possessed extraordinary leadership qualities, and as a parliamentarian and as a promoter of the Hindko language, she will always be remembered and will remain in our hearts.
Hindko is a sweet, cultured, and historical language spoken in many parts of Pakistan, including the Hazara division, Peshawar, Kohat, Kashmir, Attock, and Hidkowans (Hindko-speakingpeople )have migrated to Karachi, many parts of Punjab, interior Sindh, and Baluchistan. Hidkowans also live abroad in the Middle East, the USA, and some parts of European countries. It has a rich historical and cultural background. Although Hindko is my mother tongue, as ancestrally I belong to Kothiala, a beautiful village in Abbottabad, and about a century ago, my parents migrated to Hyderabad, and I was brought up there, but still, I have my roots in Abbottabad. My relatives live in different parts of the Hazara division, including Abbottabad, Mansehra, Haripur, Havelian, Karachi, Quetta, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, and Islamabad. For several years, I believed that Hindko is not a language; it is only spoken and does not exist in written form. Then I interacted with Mohtarma Riffat Swati Sahiba, who is lovingly called” Madre Hindko” and contributed a lot to the promotion of the Hindko language. She introduced me to Aurangzeb Ghaznavi, a highly dedicated and sincere person who is doing a good job for the promotion of the Hindko language. Under his supervision, a monthly magazine,” Farogh”, is published, in which a number of my articles have been published.
Riffat Swati Sahiba had done an excellent job for the promotion of the Hindko language, and all the Hindkowans in many parts of Pakistan respected and admired her greatly. Hindkowans called her, “ Madr e Hindko “ ( Mother of Hindko speaking people). Her contribution spans literary, educational, and cultural domains.
Riffat Akbar Swati, daughter of Muhammad Ayub, also took an active part in politics, and she was an elected member of the Provincial Assembly of the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) from 2002 to 2008, against Reserved Seats for Women and affiliated with the PPP (S).
Born into a Kashmiri family that relocated to Abbottabad following the 1947 partition of India, she has pursued roles as a legal counselor and social activist, participating in provincial seminars on public health policies, including HIV/AIDS integration into education and legislative frameworks. Her tenure involved contributions to assembly confidence votes and women’s issues discussions, amid a landscape of local security challenges such as reported armed robberies targeting her residence.
Public records on Riffat Akbar Swati’s formal education are notably sparse, with few verifiable details available from credible institutional or official sources. She is documented as an alumnus of Army Burn Hall College in Abbottabad, attending the institution from 1950 to 1959 during her early schooling years. s.Her formative years in Abbottabad, following her family’s post-Partition resettlement, unfolded amid the socio-cultural dynamics of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s tribal-conservative environment, potentially contributing to personal resilience, though specific influences on her worldview lack direct attestation in sourced materials. Empirical evidence prioritizes acknowledgment of such evidentiary voids over unsubstantiated inferences.
Riffat Akbar Swati was herself a historian as she spent more than half a century serving the people of Hazara Division, Hindkowans, and people of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Khawa. The Hazara division now is one of the most literate areas of Pakistan, but Mohtarma Riffat Swati worked for women’s rights and for the education of women of the area when people of the are were not in favor of women’s education. Those who opposed women’s education now are proud that their daughters, due to the efforts of Mohtarma Riffat Sahib, got higher education and proudly served for the cause of Pakistan.
Mohtarma Riffat Swati Sahiba was highly patriotic to Pakistan, and she loved Pakistan very much. She was proud to be a Pakistani and was free of all kinds of biases.
We pay rich tribute to her and express our heartfelt condolences to her family, all the Hindkowans, including Mohtaram Aurangzeb Ghaznavi, who really together with her was always busy in promoting the Hindko language . I also pledge my commitment that I will continue my efforts to promote Hindko language Inshah Allah. May Allah shower His countless blessings on her grave.
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