A resilient young artist with a mission.

Byline: Sadia Qasim Shah

PESHAWAR -- Imran Khan may have trouble hearing and speaking but he needs not bother about it as his hand paints such beautiful images, which speak for this young talented artist.

He almost risked losing his hand as an infant when he badly burnt it. His mother saved it with constant care making Imran feel eternally grateful to her for it.

However, he himself is very resilient person as he almost lost his hearing and power of speaking as a three-year old child due to severe fever but his inner artist eager to bloom brought him back to life.

Now, in his 30s, he is most talented though humble- artist of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and perhaps the next Gulgee of Pakistan.

'I made portrait of my teacher on my takhti (wooden writing slate), while other children wrote words. He beat me up on my hands saying it's blasphemous to make sketches,' said Imran Khan while sharing his first day in school.

Imran says he paints to show the world Pakhtuns are peaceful people

Since his teacher believed that one would go to hell for making images, he banned Imran from making any sketches for the next five years in the primary school as the artist said while sitting in his small office in Peshawar Museum with few water colour paintings of an old Pakhtun man, an Afghan child and Ajab Khan Afridi a Pakhtun freedom fighter lying around.

He currently is working to restore old paintings at the museum, while some are already on display. He picked up a brush and began painting a 'beautiful image' as he continued to tell about his art and life.

'The punishment could not stop me from making portraits as it was a natural talent,' said Imran khan with a stutter and a smile while remembering his childhood days since it was not an easy childhood.

The son of a poor fruit vendor from Peshawar, he had eight siblings and therefore, he'd little hope of ever going to a fancy school to show his talents. But his elder brothers, who painted trucks with colours for livelihood, took him along to the workplace. While his brothers painted the trucks with beautiful images, he would practice there.

His father could not pay for his college fee, so he told Imran to stop thinking of college and paint for a living and therefore, Imran ended up with a painter, who pained film advertisement boards for different cinemas.

'I used to see Ustaaz Ismail paint film advertisements. I would steal few colours - mostly leftovers - and paint at home on a canvas I pasted on a wall in my...