Mailing Address:
122 , Street No. 3
Officers Colony
Cavalry Grounds
Lahore Cantonment
Pakistan
Phone: + 92 42 6666404 - 6687827
E-mail:
jrc@syberwurx.com
| Akhtar Hameed Khan passes away |
| Noted Pakistani social scientist
Akhtar Hameed Khan died of kidney failure in the United States on Sunday,
October 10. The 85 years old Khan, who was decorated in Pakistan and abroad
for his services in social development, died in a hospital in Indiana where
he had gone to meet his daughter. A former bureaucrat during the British
Raj in India, Khan served after independence in 1947 in educational institutions
in India, the former East Pakistan now Bangladesh, and Karachi. Khan shot
to prominence for his Orangi Township Project in Karachi’s slums in 1980,
which housed 1.5 million people and is considered one of the largest such
projects in Asia. The project served as a model for the non-governmental
organisations in Pakistan, Indonesia, Nepal and Bangladesh. He was not
only a social scientist, a scholar and poet but a role model for all those
who work in the field of development.
Fayyaz Baqir, National Coordinator LIFE/GEF, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Islamabad “Although I had heard about this unusual person who had resigned from the most coveted service in India, the ICS, I came face to face with Akhtar Hameed Khan for the first time in 1959 on the Green Arrow train in the then East He had already selected the subdivision of which I was the assistant commissioner as orientation and training ground for the Academy for Rural Development of which he had accepted the directorship. This was the beginning of my long association with him. In 1970, I got an opportunity to visit my old subdivision after ten years of interval. I could not believe the changes brought about by Khan Sahib’s approach to development in the area. In my road travel throughout Comilla and Brahmanbaria subdivisions, I did not come across a single paddy field, which was not scientifically planted. The Thana training and development centres, as he had visualised, were real symbols of development. The condition of the poor people had changed beyond recognition. Traces of poverty were nowhere visible and even today thirty years after Khan Sahib’s departure, Comilla district has a per capita income of US$600 compared to the national per capita of US$ 220 in Bangladesh. His photographs still adorn the houses of Comilla district dwellers. ......In all my travels throughout the world, I have never come across a person of the stature of Akhtar Hameed Khan. I sometimes wonder if Pakistan really made the best use of his unique experience with which he was so willing and keen to benefit his countrymen.” Shoaib Sultan Khan Chairman, National Rural Support Programme (NRSP), Islamabad “......In 1996 I had the opportunity, as Director, Poverty and Social Policy Department at the World Bank, to head a team which evaluated more than 30 Social Investment Fund projects (SIF) in Latin America, Asia and Africa. What amazed as well as pleased me was that the same principles, which were introduced by Dr. Akhtar Hameed Khan in Comilla more than thirty-five years ago, were being applied in the case of these SIFs. These were demand driven, community based and continuously monitored projects creating assets for the poor in form of schools, clinics, roads and culverts and bridges, drinking water supply, small scale poultry and live stock holdings, small scale trading and other income generating activities. ...Today micro-credit has become a buzzword in the lexicon of development practitioners for poverty alleviation throughout the world but 35 years ago this idea was pioneered in Comilla. Dr Akhtar Hameed Khan has left a rich legacy of ideas and knowledge and it is upto us to replicate these ideas to enable our poor and disadvantaged communities to help them selves. This is the best tribute we can pay to his memory.” Ishrat Hussain World Bank, Washington, USA |
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Mailing Address: 122 , Street No. 3 Officers Colony Cavalry Grounds Lahore Cantonment Pakistan Phone: + 92 42 6666404 - 6687827
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