LANGLANDS� YEOMAN SERVICES

The BOG of Sayurj Public School Chitral has recognized the services of Mr. GD Langlands by taking the historical decision of naming the school after his name. This decision will surely be appreciated by everyone who discerns the educational services of Mr. Langlands for the people of Chitral. Such great people are very rare who serve the mankind sincerely, without any lust for worldly gains and Chitralis are quite lucky to have such a model personality in their homeland. His devoted and dedicated services for the promotion of quality education in Chitral will be remembered forever.
May Almighty Allah bless him with sound health and long life. Ameen

Sher Wali Khan Aseer
Abbottabad.

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Dear Editor,

I am a regular reader of newspapers from Pakistan, and the ones from my ancestral town, Chitral.I am also a great admirer of Zeeshan Tariq's thought-provoking, pointed columns (notwithstanding his mutilation of urdu poetry, particularly Khatir Ghaznavi's verse). Keep up the good work!
However, this letter is in response to Zulfiqar Ali Shah's essay, published today. I do not understand where his resentment of the NGO's is coming from. It sounds as yet another attempt to jump on the bandwagon, and denounce all the NGO's as a "westernized conspiracy of the chosen few" with a mysterious agenda. It makes indiscriminate, sweeping statements about the work of the NGO's without making any concessions, and ignoring the valuable work many grassroots organizations have done for the uplift of far-flung areas & communities. It would be so unfair not to mention the work of Agha Khan Foundation in Northern Areas, and of private educators, even journalist, from whose rank and file has risen a new breed of civic leaders in Chitral. It is also extremely unfair to criminalize all NGO's all over the country/world who have done priceless work in different sectors.
As far as the situation of women in Chitral is concerned, I totally agree that Chitral had a forward-thinking, liberal society before 1978. But it changed. That change was bound to come with the influx of the Afghan refugees---a quite different milieu with different influences, the network of roads that army built during the 70's between Peshawar and the Northern Areas, and the unstoppable mark of technology on a once pristine culture. Unfortunately, that change hasn't been of any positive nature on some women in Chitral. The frequent reports of women committing suicide all over Chitral in the last two years (at least eight todate) should be of concern to the "insiders" as they are to the "outsiders" because these women were mothers, daughters, sisters, and wives. A suicide does not only affect a single life; it traumatizes an entire family, and in the context of our Eastern cultures, a whole clan. It also gives ideas to others in similar, or worse situations to follow suit to escape problems that cannot be addressed in a better way.
What happened to a woman-friendly, tolerant society that encouraged all sorts of expressions, even of dissent? Those can be ascribed only to the influences "foreign" to this land of happy co-exhistence, prior to mid-70's. Women must have faced discrimination occasionally at the hands of oppressive individuals even then, but this kind of mass hysteria is unprecedented. I hope Chitral never acquires gruesome, unjust, un-Islamic customs like honor-killings, karo-kari, and swara, but in a fast-paced world that is coming closer by the hour, and in the current scenario of decadent politics all over the country, can such an unfortunate development be totally over-ruled? I was taken aback by a female cousin's demand to have a dowery a la Peshawari/ Punjabi style way back in the early 90's (exposure to television plays); who knows what negative ideas our young men will not acquire?
The opening of the Lowari Tunnel is sure to bring a revolution that will affect Chitrali people in unpredictable ways, particularly the social mores. Loweri tunnel cannot be and should not be stopped, but one needs to be watchful to those influences which will destroy the character of an entire culture.
Instead of depending on government resources which have poor, pathetic track record in the field of social development, Chitralis should utilize the non-governmental organizations to preserve or revive the mutually beneficial aspects of their culture, instead of harping on a boring, lackluster tunes regarding attack of the "westernized women" and their nefarious designs on unsuspecting Chitralis. That is an out and out insult to an entire population, meaning they do not know right from wrong.

Sincerely,

Ghazala Afzal Orakzai
USA

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