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‘The good, the
bad and the ugly’ -letter
By Islamuddin
At the outset let me make it clear that I am a loyal follower of
His Highness Shah Karim Aga Khan as my 49th Imam. I can never
think of disrespecting any institution carrying his name. But
now the situation has come to such a sorry pass that it would be
criminal and disservice to His Highness to remain silent because
now the casualty is the vision of the Imam and the humanity at
large that he wishes to serve as progeny of Allah’s last
prophet.
The institutions envisioned and created by His Highness and his
great grand father, which were the trade mark for quality and
service to humanity, have now started to take human lives in the
hands of pygmies. Recently yet another AKES teacher has lost his
life due to depression caused by the whimsical, reckless and
discriminatory policies and service structure offered by AKESP.
His fights against the Leviathan may have borne no fruits and he
,as a lesser mortal, had no stamina to continue the fight and
chose the easy path Earlier another teacher, a class fellow of
mine from Momi and a bright student, died of depression after
having been retired compulsorily from AKESP. Yet another class
fellow of mine from Madak lasht and a brilliant one, is fighting
for his life against depression. A few days ago I came across a
relative of mine from one of the above villages, again an AKES
teacher, whom I found at the threshold of depression. There may
well be dozens of other such cases. This is the measure of our
inhumanity that no one in AKESP feels pushed to take notice of
the situation and are hiding their heads in the sand like
ostriches or inventing excuses.
Way back in 1986 in my self sponsored research paper titled
“Wither Ismailism?” written in the backdrop of 1982 communal
disturbances in Chitral,I had predicted that if the suffocating
environment, mediocracy and sycophancy in Ismaili institutions
and AKDN are not addressed in time and with serious attitude
Ismailism would wither away and for the rehabilitation of the
leftovers we would require psychiatric facility in AKU, which I
had demanded to be established. I had sent copies of my research
paper to top Ismaili leadership. Except Ashiq Ali Hussain, who
was National Council President, no body cared to respond. He
invited me to Karachi. At that time I was heading a Federal
Government office looking after publicity matters of the
Government in the three districts of south Punjab, one of the
few Ismailis to reach that position-a position that I owe to His
Highness and Ashiq Ali Hussain, the then Administrator of Aga
Khan Education Board, who groomed me to join the prestigious
civil service of Pakistan,which no other khoja Ismaili leader of
today would like to do for a non Khoja.
I met him in Karachi. He appeared to agree with my research
finding but complained that there were few people with talent in
the North who were willing to serve there and every one wanted
to go to a city for comfortable living.To prove his point he
asked me as to whether I would resign my prestigious government
job with all its perks and privileges to serve in the North. I
immediately responded with a big yes. The answer was unexpected.
He did not want me to sacrifice my job, for which he himself had
groomed me. I confronted him with his own example. After having
passed the same civil service examination he had chosen not to
join government service. He felt cornered and asked me which
AKDN institution I would like to serve in. I immediately
responded AKESP, because of my background and interest and also
because I considered education as crucial to unlock the
development potential in the North. {The fact that I later on
took premature retirement, ten years earlier, to contribute in
the educational development in Chitral shows my commitment.} He
informed me that AKESP had a position vacant in Gilgit. He
picked up the phone and talked to Asif Fancy, then Chairman
AKESP and advised me to see him. My interview with him
apparently went well, although I found him to be arrogant,
whimsical and with flawed sense of judgment. Before leaving
Karachi I went to say goodbye to Ashiq Ali. I also gave him a
run down on my encounter with Asif. As I was about to leave, in
his usual polite style Ashiq Ali, in fatherly tone, told me that
he would find some other position for me, as Asif Fancy thought
that he would not be comfortable with me. Later on I found out
that I was rejected because I was too bold, innovative and
challenging and could not fit in his empire culture
characterized by status quo mindset, sycophancy, apartheid and
pliability.
Since then I have been convinced that without a paradigm shift
in institutional culture, AKESP can not deliver. It is
therefore, not surprising that over the years AKESP has
de-educated people in terms of values and quality consciousness,
has encouraged cronyism and injustices and is now pushing its
teachers towards depression and premature deaths by not
listening to and addressing their problems concerning terms and
conditions of service.
AKDN, especially AKESP, being global institutions are expected
to follow global standards in all matters. It is my hunch that
according to ILO criteria salary differential between the lowest
and highest paid should be 1 to 10 but in AKESP it is 1 to 100
and in some cases 1 to 1000 or more. Those who complain are
punished, rules are invented on need basis for this purpose and
no body knows what is in store for him tomorrow. Adhocism is the
order of the day. Profits and donor money are spent to hire and
give fat salaries and increments to blue eyed boys and the less
connected are made to work like donkeys for peanuts. To offset
the pressure for sustainability AKESP is now fleecing people
with high fees in the name of quality which the present set up
comprising shop keepers, businessmen, psudo-educationists and
accountants can never provide and quality private schools are
being deprived of their bright students by weaning them away,
using the name of His Highness, as a trade mark for quality. At
the end of the day when parents wake up to reality they would
have spent their life’s saving for a sort of education that was
available to them at no cost elsewhere. The net loser in the
process is the fair name of His Highness and his followers. It
is all the more painful that some very good professionals and
educationists, enjoying community’s goodwill, like the one in
Chitral, would be discredited at the end of the day because he
has no input in policy but liable for its failure and is
required to implement a policy which has no nexus with education
or ground realities. His predecessor was punished for a crime
that every one in AKDN and other institutions commits with
impunity ie private use of official resources. A Council
President , using hospital ambulance for private commuting,
defends it by saying that he enjoys authority of the Imam and he
is free to do whatever he thinks fit and no one can question
him.
The death of AKES teacher under reference not only symbolizes
death of education, but also death of humanity. As Muslims we
believe that one unjustified death of a human being is
tantamount to the death of entire humanity and the death of a
teacher should therefore mean the death of a nation’s soul.
Whatever circumstances AKESP or heirs of the deceased would like
to present for cover up or personal interest the fact remains
that circumstantial and supporting evidence makes a damning case
against the high ups of AKESP. The only way for redemption is to
take urgent steps to save the lives of other teachers and their
families through radical reforms in AKESP and fair dispensation
for the teachers, correcting the present imbalances, which have
become the hallmark of not only AKESP but other institutions as
well which now deserve to be corrected before it is too late.
The good Imam’s vision can not be translated into reality if his
followers continue to be bad and suicidal and the leaders
continue to be ugly, taking sadistic pleasure in the agony of
the very people that they are supposed to serve.
Islamuddin,
Garam Chashma, Chitral
01 May 10.
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