Be Patriotism Instead Of Confrontation

During some days I have reading of various news, which are written by our respective writers. I have analyses regarding this news. We should be effort unanimously for development of Chitral. We must avoid confrontation and confusion to each other�s. The time need of patriotism and brotherhood. The statement of our MPA Maulana Abdur Rahman is a responsible person. If he is irresponsible than how can people elected him as Member of Provincial Assembly. I cannot believe it that he is given that statement against educational institution. If this institute is built in the said area the credit goes to MMA government. This is malpractice of the enemy element to create a problem politically in Chitral. May Almighty Allah we are all Muslims living in Chitral. We have a unique culture, hospitality, honesty and prosperity, amongst the people of Chitral.

Some people actively struggle to sabotage the peaceful atmosphere in Chitral. I personally request to my elders, brothers, sisters and dignitaries /local representatives in Chitral please be aware and not give a chance to the enemy to divide us into sectarians and success in his mission. So that the enemy must attack in various methods, to create problems, psychologically and ethically. In my view every thing is going well in Chitral. Recently I had been read Maulana Khaliq uz Zaman of Shahi Masque Chitral�s articles. It�s teaching us regarding unity and brotherhood. It should be implement able. Therefore, my brothers don�t be emotional there are nothing ignorance of education or institution of the quality of education.


Zhano Yar Khan
Islamabad
[email protected]
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Who is Right?

I never found good reasons for why Chitralis appeared to be so emotional. The fact that political, religious, ethnic and regional association of individuals make them biased sometimes but sense of responsibility as a citizen or leader always wins the negotiation. This means that emotions are kept aside while being decisive on an issue. With thorough analyses of the point of views shared by writers in  Chitral times on a statement of MPA Chitral, one can conclude that most of the writers have taken the issue very simple and shown aggressive reactions. I do agree with the views of the knowledgeable writers that Chitral badly needs educational institutions and quality training programmes for our teachers who have very limited exposure to modern teaching methodologies. But, look at political and social structure of our society, is it so simple or we are that educated to accept diversity in the society. One can take the example of a family where there is a great diversity inside the household in terms of priorities of the family members and a process of negotiation always exist and it is the responsibility of the household head to accommodate their priorities and take final decisions acceptable to all because you can not make all members identical and the household needs to move forward socially and economically. Society is like a households and huge diversity exists in the form of religious, political and ethnic associations of the individuals. The challenge for development in Chitral has been the gap between two communities and history tells us that due to lack of trust among communities, the district has paid a heavy price in past. As Ismailis and Sunnis, let face some facts, Mr. Abdu Rabb (one of the writers) rightly mentioned about persistent inter communal disparity in terms of social development in Chitral, most of the AKDN institutions have been communal until recently when they receive grants from external donors and their initial focus remained on Ismaili communities which resulted in creation of social disparities. If AKDN has shifted its strategy, and intends to increase its investment in southern Chitral it cannot make things changed drastically because we still lack of trust and power relation also plays an important role particularly in this phase of transformation where both pull and push factors in the society are at work with equal execution power.
Opposition of Shifting Professional Development Centre from Denin to Joghore (with less than one Km distance) exemplifies this situation. Apart from the beneficiaries of PDC, there are three main stakeholders, the AKDN, the religious leaders and the leaders (both in political and social sphere) of Chitral. Now look at their specific interest, I believe that AKDN�s objective to establish this institution in Chitral town is to increase accessibility of teachers and to address the longstanding issue of low investment of AKDN in Southern Chitral and PDC has successfully working in town for the last few years. The religious leaders (not all) are clearly maintaining their stance on the issue and opposition rises when the
institution is named as AKU which links the issue with the establishment of AKU academic board that has been a hot topic in national politics. Now, the interest of the leaders of Chitral who are supposed to shape the future of the region must be to welcome all possible investment which we crave. Who is wrong, I say non of them, all have right stance with their own point of views (aggressive or polite), the question is then what is right, and that take you back to early mentioned negotiation process in a highly heterogeneous society within an environment of extreme diversity of point of views and priorities. Most of these writers, I believe, can be categorized as leaders but unfortunately trapped by biasness and emotions. Opinion of shifting AKDN offices to Booni and Gram Chashma is one example of immature thought. I expect that instead of teaching the opponents, the leaders must play their leadership role and come out of the situation with a solution
acceptable to all stakeholders. This requires a process of dialogue not electronic letters to online news papers. I never find religious leaders irrational and there is always difference between public speech and serious talk on an issue and MMA leaders must have learnt that an elected representative should not confined him to be a leader of a sect or group of people but a leader of the region with 380,000 individuals. AKDN must understand that Ismailis have over 40 years of experience of community development and are in better position to leverage external resources, however, they need to work closely with Suni communities to bridge the gap and create an environment where both communities can move forward with accepting each other. Alternative solution would be to make all Chitral identical (one sect, one sub-sect, one political party, one ethnic group, and same age etc.). Is it possible?

Moiz Aman Khan
Chitral