July 10, 2008

“Pakistan’s development will not come from the top, it will come from the bottom, and it will happen in pockets — one island formed here, one there and one island will be made by you…” read the large banner inside the National Library in Islamabad where we had all gathered last week for the Dr Akhter Hameed Khan annual memorial lecture.

There were lots of people there — over 500 environmentalists and development specialists, heads of NGOs and donor agencies and professors and students from various universities. All of us under one roof to celebrate the life and work of one of most visionary individuals this country has produced. Dr A. H. Khan passed away in 1999, but his work lives on in the people he inspired and taught and the communities he organised and developed.

I was fortunate enough to have met Dr A. H. Khan once in my life, at a UNDP workshop held just a year before he died. It was his humility which immediately struck me. Dr A. H. Khan was a Sufi in the highest sense of the word — not only was he committed to its central principles of simplicity, tolerance and peace, but he practiced self-denial all his life, never accepting well-paying jobs or a lavish lifestyle. In his address to the participants, he made it clear that development work is like the work of a Sufi — a mystic is not driven by greed and he does not preach. He serves people and teaches others by setting a personal example. Dr A. H. Khan related his own experiences in the Indian Civil Service (he later resigned from the ICS to become a locksmith — during this period in his life he learnt to live with the poor as one of them) and the Orangi Pilot Project. He words were simple and clear — yet they contained profound wisdom and often he would lapse into Urdu and Persian poetry to illustrate a point (he was fluent in almost half a dozen languages).

Perhaps Dr A. H. Khan’s most important message was that for lasting development to occur in any given area, the activists have to come from within the communities. “Where you go into a community with a “mai-baap” attitude, saying we’ll do this and that for you, you will fail. If you help people get up on their feet, you will succeed. That will only happen if people from the community come forward as activists… be patient, look around for activists, train them and persuade them to motivate the others. Don’t take on the burden yourself like a donkey — your back will break just like the Pakistan government.”

Dr A. H. Khan has contributed to some of the most important development thought in this country. Not many people are aware that aside from setting up the world-renowned Orangi Pilot Project in Karachi, it was his philosophy and experience that formed the basis of the highly successful Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP) established in the mountainous northern areas of Pakistan by his student and friend, Shoaib Sultan Khan. Dr A. H. Khan served as an advisor to the programme for many years, and today the AKRSP has virtually transformed the Northern Areas.

Now the National Rural Support Programme (which is part of the Rural Support Programmes Network) is replicating the work done by the AKRSP throughout Pakistan. It is headed by Shoaib Sultan Khan, who gave the welcome address to this year’s annual lecture. He stated that the Rural Support network is the result of Dr A. H. Khan’s vision and gave a brief history of how the network evolved in the 1990s. He then introduced the key speaker of the evening, Kopula Raju, a close friend and colleague from across the border. As Principal Secretary, Government of Andhra Pradesh, K. Raju has quietly led a transformation of the lives of the eight million rural poor in the state over the past 12 years.

According to K. Raju, Dr A. H. Khan has deeply influenced the development discourse not only in Pakistan, but in several other countries including India. He stated that: “The biggest contribution that Dr A. H. 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.” What the poor need, he explained, “was empowerment in the form of technical knowledge, maybe some catalytic financial support, but most of all institutions that give them the right to decide on all issues that affect their lives.”

Although he never had the privilege of meeting Dr A. H. Khan in person, K. Raju did receive guidance from his student (or disciple!), Shoaib Sultan Khan. K. Raju explained that: “During the last one decade, each time I realise the wisdom in recognising the resourcefulness, intelligence and creativity of the poor, with whom I have been working closely, I repeatedly felt connected with Dr A. H. Khan. From Shoaib Sultan I learnt about Dr A. H. Khan’s life and lessons in rural development… Over the years, I remained a staunch admirer of his ideas and work, as some one practicing them on a daily basis…”

K. Raju has used Dr A. H. Khan’s philosophy to organise the rural poor of Andhra Pradesh. In his words, “the poor of Andhra Pradesh, who have now formed self-managed and self-reliant organisations, covering 8.8 million poor women, owe it to Dr A. H. Khan for showing the world the intrinsic potential of the poor that lay buried deep under the prejudices and insensitivities of the governing elite.”

The Andhra Pradesh model of empowering the poor is now being replicated by other states in India and is also attracting the attention of other South Asian and African states. This indeed is a tribute to the great legacy of

Dr A. H. Khan. And if they can upscale his work so successfully in India, why can’t it happen here in Pakistan?