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.. by Dr Mir Baiz Khan

Today, as the late Prince Philip is laid to rest, it brings to an end his long life, spanning almost a century. During his life time, the late prince visited Pakistan a few times accompanying the Queen, the British Monarch and his wife. It was only late in his life that he visited Chitral in 1997. His visit, the first of any dignitary of his stature in the British Monarchy since 1895, when the then British Indian Empire took over the administration of Chitral. The event which necessitated the takeover was that the state was preoccupied at the time by an internecine conflict within the ruling family surrounding the succession to leadership following the death of its ruler on August 30, 1892. Late Prince Philip was five years old at the time.

The late prince was known for his independent mind, upfront expression of his opinions and humorous observations. He was an author and avid reader. Certainly, he would have read the books written by the British military officers stationed in Chitral and its surrounding regions at the time when it was brought within the domain of the British Indian Empire. In these writings, Chitral assumed a special projection because of the events of what became known as a minor siege, in which a British officer was among the casualties. In a deteriorating situation, the British Indian Army was mobilized at two fronts. Colonel Kelly had to march to Chitral with his entire command of Gilgit district through the snow clad valleys in co-ordination with the division of troops under Major-General Sir Robert Low which was dispatched from Nawshera to Chitral. The late prince would have had extensive knowledge of these events. He must have reflected on the past and the present of Chitral and Chitralis juxtaposing them in his free-flowing thoughts.

The officers who were engaged in and part of the campaign expressed their opinions about Chitral and its people through the lenses of their experience educating the British people and the Western readers in general in a rather sensationally negative projection. Here are some excerpts from their descriptions. For them, the Chitrali people were such that ‘few people more treacherous than the Chitralis,’ no men crueller than them, were inherently cruel without honesty, ‘slaying of brother by brother, of son by father.’  Chitralis ‘were like children – impulsive, gay, careless, easily roused and easily soothed.’ ‘Their bad points were the same as children’s – they were always wanting presents and the more they were given, the more they wanted.’  The positive attributes of Chitralis were narrated as ‘a great fondness for music, dancing and singing,’ and they were ‘fond of shooting and hawking and playing polo with great dash and spirit.’ The most significant positive attribute for these officer-authors was ‘a complete absence of religious fanaticism.’

Describing the topography of Chitral a military officer wrote ‘It takes time for the mind to recover from the depression which the stillness and melancholy of the giant landscape at first compel.’ Referring to the natural sound of the flowing Chitral River, an officer mentioned: ‘The dull ceaseless roar of the distant river changes, whenever you listen fixedly, to a sound as of supernatural voices shrieking in agony, but too remote for human sympathy’ and the space ‘consists of tiny fan-shaped oases of cultivation on soil deposited by mountain streams, just before they noisily hurl themselves into a main river.’

A hundred plus years later, Prince Philip, husband of the Queen and nephew of Lord Mountbatten, the last viceroy of India, visited Chitral. During his visit, he met local dignitaries, common people, inaugurated a hydropower station and visited a school.  Late Prince Philip was very supportive of youth globally and made tremendous efforts to motivate them to be successful in life and to contribute to their communities and societies.   The prince must have observed many things from the air while flying over the valley and on the land when visiting sites, interacting with local Chitralis. He must have been pleasantly surprised that after all Chitralis are not wild people; they are cultured and welcoming. They are committed to develop their area and love pursuing education. Their country is not dull as described previously, but pretty and picturesque with valleys, streams, mountains, migrating birds, wild life, game parks, great variety of fruits and traditional food. We can conjecture on the Prince’s reflections on how the old world had changed to reflect a new, emerging more pluralistic society.

Today, we Chitralis as we think of the late prince, on his funeral day, we can thank him for taking an interest and making time to visit Chitral in his advanced age. He will be remembered by many. May his soul rest in eternal peace.  .. Dr Mir Baiz Khan, Canada 17 Apr 2021  

.. by Prof. R.K. Baig

Geographically Chitral has been hemmed in by lofty mountains and its northern border is completely blocked by over 6000m peaks with hanging glaciers that make any kind of traffic impossible between Chitral and Wakhan pan handle of Afghanistan starting from Terich Mir group of peaks to Boroghil except a few very high passes like Kan Khun pass or Ochili pass but all other notched joints are just cols and not passes hence impassable.

Inside Chitral in the old days there were few bridges and in summers no bridges at all so there were trails on all hillsides and many of these trails  carry interesting stories. Some have got good popularity for their easiness to escape from the wrath of the rulers. The trail from Golen to Laspur, from Oveer to Karim Abad, from Uthool to Terich, from Khot to Kuzh, from Istaru to Parwak, from Kushum/ Madak to Terich or vice versa, from Chuinj to Barsat via Chumarkan, from Sorlaspur to Swat via Kachi Khani pass, from Rech to Yarkhun etc. have been of great importance. All told these are over 200 trails and each trail has its own history and interesting stories-some are also romantic. As part of our culture and for the attracting of tourists require to be documented. The  Tourism Department of KPK is hereby requested to include this part of culture in the list of tourist destinations.. .. Prof. Rahmat Karim Baig, Chitral 12 Apr 2021

.. by Naeem Sadiq

It is noble and inspiring for Pakistan to speak of the ideals of the state of Medina and to champion the cause of the people of Kashmir. However, these goals can only be realised by a modern, progressive, peaceful, tolerant and prosperous state. A state with a foreign debt of $115 billion, with 220 million mouths to feed, and a fragile capacity to enforce its writ within its own borders should first focus on ‘putting its own house in order’. This reality cannot be altered by clichés and ‘lip service’ nor can it be replaced by wishes.

There is little to suggest that Pakistan is ready to disengage from its mindset of medieval past and take on the challenges of today’s real world. Just last week, the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) interpreted the slogan “Corona say darna nahi, larna hay”, as “un-Islamic and immoral”. The federal government unthinkingly obliged and obediently changed the slogan. This small incident sums up the modus operandi of the state — appease the obscurantists, play to the gallery, shun all reasoning and seek band-aid solutions. Likewise, knowing fully well the availability of more accurate scientific solutions, we feel no embarrassment in pampering and wasting tax payers’ money on the Ruet-e-Hilal Committee so that it could act as our arbiter for moons and morals. A nation dominated by such primitive institutions and bogged down in irrelevant inanities is totally out of sync with the competitive world of today — a fact confirmed by Pakistan’s near bottom standing in most human development indicators.

There are role models before us who have used reason, science, technology and good common sense to make great progress. We could learn from Germany’s use of alternative energy to solve our power problem. We could learn how Turkey has developed sewage treatment plants to treat 100% of its sewage, how Finland provides the finest education to its children, how Holland promotes cycles to reduce its carbon footprint, how the UK government uses only 83 pool cars for all its ministries as against the 22,000 cars used by the Sindh government alone, how the Canadian government provides pro-active “access to information”, how Japan runs its railway, how Estonia became the world leader in digitisation, how China lifted 100 million people out of poverty, how Kenya assures social security for every worker, and how Bangladesh brought its fertility rate down to 2.1.

Reducing inequality and poverty ought to be the bottom line of every development. This requires us to think and act ‘differently’ in at least four critical areas of governance. These are: replace existing bureaucracy by small, highly competent and empowered teams (not advisors) to manage each major area of governance; implement population control and bring down the fertility rate to 2.1; digitise all governance processes, eliminate paper files, introduce electronic records and require that all payments are made through mobile phone money transfer systems without anyone having to visit any office.

The fourth issue relates to raising the existing minimum wage of workers across Pakistan to at least Rs30,000 per month. The dysfunctional structures of Employees Old-Age Benefit (EOBI), the provincial social security and labour departments ought to be closed down and replaced by teams as described above. The CNIC number of each worker should be made the EOBI and social security number and the entire database should be placed on a website accessible by any individual or official from any location. The minimum wage, EOBI and social security requirements ought to be consistent across Pakistan, applicable to each employee and not dependent on the number of employees or the type of work in an organisation. Pakistan could save a lot on clichés, promises and ‘bypass’ programmes such as BISP and Ehsaas if it was to earnestly implement the above suggestions.  .. Source