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Islamabad -- Speakers at a memorial
lecture on Saturday termed Dr. Akhter Hameed
Khan as an outstanding social scientist of his
time who was recognised globally for his
pioneering contributions to theory and practice
of poverty alleviation through social
mobilisation.
The annual memorial
lecture was jointly organised by Rural Support
Programme Network (RSPN), Council of Social
Sciences (COSS) and Institute of Rural
Management (IRM) here.
The speakers said
Dr. Akhter Hameed deeply influenced the
development discourse not only in Pakistan but
in several other countries where ideas
introduced by him were largely adopted for
poverty alleviation. They said guiding principal
given by Dr. Khan focuses on social mobilisation
that allows people to harness their true
potential for social uplift and improvement in
the standard of life. Special Assistant to the
Prime Minister Hina Rabbani Khar while speaking
as a chief guest said the Andra Pradesh (India)
model based on Dr. Khan�s analytical thinking
has proven that the poor are clearly able to
help themselves.
Hina Rabbani said the
rural support networks have started mutual
reinforcement and learning for the past few
years and success of establishment of basic
health units all over the country speaks volumes
of ongoing efforts to facilitate people at their
doorsteps.
She said Dr. Akhter Hameed
was champion of poor segments of the society and
his ideas continue to be a source of inspiration
for social scientists, economic managers and all
those related to poverty alleviation programmes.
�Dr. Khan strongly believed in social
equality and we should put in our best efforts
to continue his mission for social uplift of
poor strata of the society,� she said.
Keynote speaker Kopula Raju, principal
secretary of the government of Andra Pradesh,
said Dr. Khan�s work for finding long term
solutions to complex socio-economic problems
afflicting the poor is truly inspiring for all
generations.
He lived his life for
others and those who live for others live
forever. The biggest contribution that Dr. Khan
made to society was to correct our distorted
perception of the poor. He taught us through his
lifelong work that poverty arises not out of
lack of money, but out of constant
disempowerment, he said.
He emphasised
the importance of how we need to build on the
tradition of promoting self-reliance among poor
communities. �The remarkable achievements of his
work are centred in his passionate belief,
conceptual clarity and his methodology of
empowering poor to help themselves in achieving
the goal of true development.
Raju said
the poor of Andra Pradesh, who have now formed
self-managed and self-reliant organisations,
covering 8.8 million poor women, owe it to Dr.
Khan for showing the world the intrinsic
potential of the poor that lay buried deep under
the prejudices and insensitivities of the
governing elite.
Earlier, in the welcome
address RSPN Chairman Shoaib Sultan gave a brief
history of the establishment of the network and
the support of the successive governments to set
up its provincial networks in all the federating
units. Later, a documentary was screened to the
audience on the life and achievements of Dr.
Akhter Hameed Khan.
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