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Business Recorder (Karachi, Pakistan) Editorial on October 13, 1999:
EDITORIAL (October 13) : Mourning in these columns, only the other day, the sad demise of the country's distinguished educationist Syed Ghulam Mustafa Shah, little did we know that the angel of death had been fluttering his wings around Dr Akhtar Hamid Khan about the same time.
The noted social scientist and silent revolutionary breathed his last far away from home, in the United States, where he had been sojourning since May last. With their hearts pulsating with a common concern for the nation's future, the two octogenarians contributed as much as they could to the reshaping of the post-independence society from the treasure of knowledge and experience accumulated by them in their respective areas of interest. And since Akhtar Hamid Khan had remained seized with the passion for self-reliant development of the society, literally at the grassroots level, he took upon himself the task of demonstrating the unfailing wisdom behind this revolutionary concept. To him development did not mean just building roads and bridges, schools and hospitals, mills and factories here and there. And these too at forbidding costs, both in terms of money and human suffering, even mortgaging economic independence to World Bank and IMF.
The perils of such development he had seen much earlier, long before the country's planners and managers of economy got even an inkling of it. To him real development essentially meant education for the children, healthcare for the families, sanitation for the community and opportunities of income generation to the people - all these at the grassroots level and by the collective effort of the people and through self-reliance in the real sense. His approach was evidently at variance with the growth models carved by the western planners and development scientists. Viewing development as a process of social change, as effected by man with the application of his intellect and labour and basically financed from the participants' own contributions, he was not taken seriously by the protagonists of borrowed ideas and resources for development. But that did not deter him from pursuing in his effort and creating for it a strong appeal among communities deep down the neglected and backward areas. A visionary in his own right, he had relinquished his position in the Indian Civil Service, to work practically as a labourer, only later to take up teaching at Jamia Millia in Delhi, still researching and planning to translate his dream into reality.
The first convincing demonstration of his practical wisdom in development was made at Comilla in Bangladesh (then East Pakistan) where he had founded the Pakistan Academy for Rural Development. It was there that by mobilising the poor and the deprived of the rural area, he had his first success in creating a live model of self-reliant rural development. It created sensation in the world of development. The people around the place took a fancy for it, but those who mattered on the political front remained largely unimpressed. However, the word about his singular achievement, spreading far and wide in the world outside, saw similar projects functioning in certain other countries. And as recognition of his grand success, he was soon honoured by the prestigious Magsasay Award. The Pakistan government awarded him too, much later though, with Sitara-e-Imtiaz and Hilal-e-Imtiaz. Dr Khan's greatest endeavour, a living monument to his lasting memory is the Orangi Pilot Project which he launched in 1980 in the thick of urban poverty right in Karachi, the country's largest industrial centre.
It has brought many miracles to the area inhabited by hundreds of thousands of low-paid workers who have successfully transformed the area into a model of dignified living and working place by building roads and a massive sewerage network all across the places dotted with narrow lanes and bylanes. Orangi, a huge population block, infested with poverty and deprivation is now a totally different place. Working with their own hands, pooling their own resources to finance the project, they have also set up their own schools and hospitals as well as indigenous financing institutions to help them increase their earnings. However, all this did not mean a smooth sailing for Dr Khan. Many and varied were the hindrances placed by his detractors, but he braved them all so that the people could learn and experience the reward of their own collective effort. Many NGOs are believed to be trying to emulate his example. And many more will continue to tread his path, for therein lies the secret of Pakistan's transformation into a living model of a developing economy which it can make of itself in the early years of the next millennium.