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Capering oranges with apples: Chitral�s troubled elections

I found Islamuddin�s comments on the responses to his letter somewhat more reflective of the complexities in Chitral society and the forces at play in it than his original letter. He has highlighted some real issues such as poverty and lack of quality education and has tried to refrain from indulging in religious polemics which has taken Muslims nowhere nor is it going to do any good to anyone at present or in the future. While I share Islamuddin�s concerns, I do not subscribe to his analysis of events and approaches that he suggests to address them. Let me limit myself to the points that he has raised regarding my comments on his letter.

Islamuddin�s point to accept wrong doings of the past and apologizing to the victimized is indeed magnanimity. However, comparing Austrian prime minister�s apology to its indigenous population for the race-based discriminatory policy of the successive governments and Nelson Mendala�s forgiveness and policy of reconciliation to leave behind the scars of brutality of the apartheid racist system with an ill conceived rather ill advised short lived policy of Mehtar Shujaul Mulk is like comparing oranges with apples. The details of this policy, I believe, should be left to historians and anthropologists of sociology to determine its causes and damages it might have done to the communal harmony in Chitral. The Mehtar�s proselytizing policy, as my reading goes, was a suicidal act on his part for a long ruling legacy of his own family because it lost moral authority to govern over a large Ismaili population and never regained the loyalty that it had enjoyed for a very long time. Be it as it may. It is however my conviction that making an individual, no matter who he or she may be, responsible for the acts of his or her ancestors is wrong. The need of the time is not to rejuvenate old bitter feelings, but rather focus on the contemporary challenges and on finding ways to harness the collective wisdom and energies to find solutions to those challenges, be they man-made crisis or caused by natural disasters.

I admire Islamuddin�s dedication to Chitral and I am confident his ideas will be a valuable contribution to the emerging intellectual tradition in Chitral. I am surprised however that in his comments, Islamuddin instead of contesting my ideas, has taken an exception to where I live. His insinuation that I have taken the flight to safety deserves some response. I confess that I don�t live in Chitral physically, only physically. After all living physically in a place does not necessarily guarantee that one is making a real difference. Islamuddin knows that we are not totally free to charter our destiny, sometimes situations in which we find ourselves are beyond our control. As his career took him to the inner circle of Pakistan�s bureaucracy, my career took me beyond the borders of Pakistan. I am in Canada, a country which gives me the freedom that I need, provides me security, welcomes me the way I am; my background, my culture and my faith all get immediate recognition and respect. This has not however affected my love for and concerns about Chitral which is where I was born and spent my formative years; I feel all the pains and pleasures of my birth place.

During the post August 9, 1982 fateful event in Chitral, I made an important decision in my life; with Master�s degree from University of London and with full citizenship rights to stay in UK and with a guaranteed job within the community institution and a job offer from the International Institute of Education Planning, UNESCO office in Paris, I decided to return to Chitral and spent eight prime years of my career in serving the communities in far flung villages. One might say my services in those days were confined to the Ismaili community. Well that is nearly half of Chitral population. On a broader context, I am gratified for the opportunity that was provided to me to set up the Aga Khan Higher Secondary School in Gilgit. As its commissioning officer and founding principal, I made sure that students from Chitral who successfully competed and qualified for admission were able to continue their education in this high quality institution. I am told that my students have now entered into prestigious institutions of higher learning and progressing towards promising careers. In addition, under my leadership, feasibility studies were developed to open higher secondary schools of high calibre in Gahkuch, in the northern Areas, and in upper and lower Chitral. All three are now operational and high quality buildings for these schools are under construction in Chitral. I have no doubt that students graduating from these schools will first of all bring revolutionary improvement in the quality of life in their families and contribute to the development of Chitral as a whole. I strongly believe that instead of amplifying the communal tension we concentrate on real practical issues and make every effort to work together in the interest of all Chitralis.

While I agree with Islamuddin as to his suggestion that inflammatory rhetoric flaring sectarian, regional and ethnic conflicts should be outlawed, but suggesting that opening the door of Jamatkhanas to politicians as a solution is too simplistic and unrelated. Masajids and Jamatkhanas are places of worship to pray and reflect not political battle grounds. Their sanctity and privacy must be respected otherwise they will become houses of discord rather than houses of piety and peace.


Mir Baiz Khan
Toronto