PAKISTAN INSTITUTIONAL ACTIVITIES

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50-bed Aga Khan Medical Centre opened in Gilgit

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http://www.dawn.com/news/1260462/50-bed ... -in-gilgit

50-bed Aga Khan Medical Centre opened in Gilgit

DAWN
The Newspaper's Staff Reporter



KARACHI: Princess Zahra Aga Khan and Prince Rahim Aga Khan inaugurated a 50-bed medical centre in Gilgit on Tuesday.

According to a media release, the Aga Khan Medical Centre was established to provide health care in large underserved areas and to complement the government’s efforts to attain the sustainable development goals in health.

The facility — the Gilgit Centre — would provide high quality diagnostic and secondary health care and connect the Gilgit hub through a digital health network to clinics in Singal, Gupis, Aliabad, Soust, Booni and Garamchashma, it added.

Princess Zahra and Prince Rahim — who both are members of the board of directors of the Aga Khan Development Network — also visited a school in Rahimabad and the Aga Khan University’s Professional Development Centre, North, in Gilgit.

Published in Dawn, May 25th, 2016
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Photo of the opening ceremony at:

http://www.passutimes.net/News/1614
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Princess Zahra and Prince Rahim visit Gilgit 2016

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https://www.theismaili.org/news-events/ ... ate-health


Princess Zahra and Prince Rahim visit Gilgit and inaugurate health centre

TheIsmaili.org
25 May 2016

Islamabad, 25 May 2016 — Princess Zahra and Prince Rahim were in Gilgit yesterday, where they inaugurated a 50-bed medical centre that will serve as a healthcare hub for the surrounding region. They also visited other AKDN programmes and a Jamatkhana in the area.

The new medical centre is equipped to provide high quality diagnostics and secondary healthcare services. It also serves as a digital link between clinics in outlying villages and connects them with state-of-the-art medical resources in Pakistan and around the world.

The medical centre is part of a “hub and spoke” model, says Nadeem Husain, Chief Executive Officer of Aga Khan Health Service, Pakistan. “The Aga Khan Medical Centre in Gilgit provides quality secondary healthcare to communities that are presently underserved, and is linked with primary health care units in Northern Pakistan as well as the Aga Khan University Hospital in Karachi.”

“In addition to facilitating patient care, the new centre also adds capacity to provide continuing education for nurses, doctors and other health professionals, as well as to serve as a base for clinical research.”

Princess Zahra and Prince Rahim arrived in Pakistan on Monday for a working visit. In addition to inaugurating the medical centre, they visited a model high school in Rahimabad, the Aga Khan University’s Professional Development Centre in Gilgit, and a Jamatkhana in Baladul Karim.

The Diamond Jubilee Model High School in Rahimabad is one of 106 Aga Khan Schools in Gilgit-Baltistan serving more than 23 000 children in the region. The school recently improved and expanded its facilities, adding pre-primary classrooms and a multi-purpose hall reflecting its commitment to early childhood education, a programme launched in 2009.

The Aga Khan University’s Professional Development Centre, North works with over 146 schools serving more than 76 000 students to improve the quality of instruction, management and administration. Over 15 000 teachers, head teachers, education managers, and district supervisory staff have benefitted, of which more than half are women.

In an earthquake-prone region like Gilgit-Baltistan, Jamatkhanas serve as safe shelters. All structures under the Jamatkhana development programme are seismically resilient and designed to resist seismic forces for a zone higher than that defined by the Geological Survey of Pakistan.

“The idea of constructing buildings that are safe from disaster using affordable and accessible technology was once a dream that was out of reach,” says Hafiz Sherali, President of the Ismaili Council for Pakistan. “The Baladul Karim Jamatkhana is also a demonstration of the established model of self-help construction where the Jamat provides assistance with land, local material and labour.”

Completed in 2014, the Baladul Karim Jamatkhana uses a seismic resistant technology developed by the Aga Khan Agency for Habitat, and is situated on a site that is safe from natural hazards.
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New Aga Khan medical centre inaugurated in Gilgit

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http://www.thenews.com.pk/print/123157- ... -in-Gilgit



New Aga Khan medical centre inaugurated in Gilgit


May 27, 2016

Princess Zahra Aga Khan and Prince Rahim Aga Khan inaugurated the centre

GILGIT: In its push to provide healthcare in large underserved areas of Pakistan, and to complement the government’s efforts to attain the sustainable development goals in health, an Aga Khan Medical Centre was recently inaugurated by Princess Zahra Aga Khan and Prince Rahim Aga Khan.

The 50-bed Centre anchors a “hub” that provides high quality diagnostics and secondary healthcare. Spokes that radiate out from the centre will connect the Gilgit hub through a digital health network to clinics in Singal, Gupis, Aliabad, Soust, Booni and Garamchasma.

The Gilgit centre is also connected to state-of-the-art medical resources in other parts of Pakistan and in other countries, including the Aga Khan University Hospital in Karachi. E-Health connections such as these have already had a major impact on health care in the region, improving diagnosis, treatment and overall care. Over 8,200 tele-consultations for a range of needs, from bone fractures to cardiovascular disease, have been made over the last two years, saving over 400 million Pakistani Rupees (US$4 million) in patient time and lost earnings due to travel for health concerns.

The hub and spoke model is intended to ensure that essential healthcare is accessible to all throughout Pakistan. Since the opening of the Aga Khan University’s School of Nursing in 1983, agencies of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) have been involved in a number of activities along the entire health spectrum, from training nurses, doctors and other health professionals to providing care in underserved areas, both in the south and in the north.

The AKDN’s research into the burden of local diseases and health system design has been concentrated in Sindh, but research spokes have been extended throughout the country.

The impact of these programmes over the last 30 years show that the model works: In a country where the ratio of maternal mortality per 100,000 live births is 190, the rate in areas where AKDN works has fallen to under 60. Where infant mortality remains 59 per 1,000 live births overall in Pakistan, it has fallen to 20 per 1,000 live births in areas served by the AKDN. Perhaps one of the most important indicators – the percentage of deliveries that are made with skilled birth attendants – has risen to 86 percent in areas where AKDN institutions work, while it has remained at 52 percent for Pakistan as a whole.

It is important to note that not all improvements can be attributed to AKDN’s health systems alone. AKDN also operates integrated programmes for safe water, adequate sanitation, improved livelihoods, and education.

The education component of this integrated approach was highlighted by Princess Zahra and Prince Rahim when they visited a school in Rahimabad and the Aga Khan University’s Professional Development Centre, North (PDCN) in Gilgit.

The Rahimabad School is one of 106 Aga Khan Schools in Gilgit-Baltistan serving more than 23,000 children in the region. As part of the organisation’s plans for further expansion of quality provision, the school has recently improved and expanded its facilities and added pre-primary classrooms and a multi-purpose hall reflecting the organisation’s commitment to early childhood education.

The not-for-profit school in Rahimabad was one of the beneficiaries of the PDCN’s Whole School Improvement Programme. PDCN has worked with over 146 schools serving more than 76,000 students to improve the quality of instruction, management and administration. These programmes have benefited over 15,000 teachers, head teachers, education managers, and district supervisory staff, over half of them women.

These education efforts, combined with other efforts to provide hydroelectricity, improve health, boost agricultural yields, provide safe drinking water and stimulate employment, have proven, when combined, to have important effects on the overall quality of health — and life in general.
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Conservation kudos: Shahi Hammam restoration wins UNESCO’s Award of Merit

LAHORE:

The conservation of the 17th century Shahi Hammam in the Walled City of Lahore has received the Award of Merit in this year’s UNESCO Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation, announced in Bangkok on September 1.

To celebrate this, the Walled City of Lahore Authority (WCLA) and Aga Khan Culture Services Pakistan (AKCSP) organised a press briefing at the Hammam on Thursday.

The Aga Khan Cultural Service Pakistan (AKCSP), with financial support of the Royal Norwegian Embassy (RNE) and facilitation from the Walled City of Lahore Authority (WCLA), carried out the conservation of the Mughal-era public bathhouse. The two-year project which was completed in 2015 is part of a successful public-private partnership between the Aga Khan Trust for Culture and the Government of Punjab. The primary objectives of the conservation effort were to re-establish the monument as a bathhouse through the exposure, conservation and display of the remains of the original waterworks, drainage and hypocaust system through archaeological excavation, structural consolidation and restoration of the historic floor levels.

WCLA Director General Kamran Lashari said: “Conservation work at Dina Nath well and Wazir Khan square will be completed by March next year. These will be revived to their original glory.” AKCSP consultant Rashid Makhdum briefed the participants about the historic importance of Shahi Hammam and the techniques used during its conservation.

More....
http://tribune.com.pk/story/1178910/con ... ard-merit/
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Aga Khan Cultural Services-Pakistan and the restoration of Amburiq Mosque Shigar Valley

http://archnet.org/#sites/5514

The total covered area of the Mosque is 63m². Building restoration was started in April 1998 and was completed in August 2000. Of the total restoration cost of US$ 18'300, Royal Norwegian Embassy, Islamabad provided US$ 16'250, while the remaining amount was contributed by the local community. Aga Khan Cultural Services-Pakistan provided technical assistance and oversight of the project. The project won the Award of Merit in the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Heritage Awards of 2005.
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President lauds services of AKDN

Islamabad

President Mamnoon Hussain Wednesday appreciated the socio-economic work and services rendered by the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN), Aga Khan Foundation and Aga Khan Health services in Pakistan under the inspiring and dynamic leadership of His Highness the Aga Khan.

Talking to Hafiz Sherali, President Aga Khan Council for Pakistan at Aiwan-e-Sadr, the president noted that continued engagement of AKDN in Pakistan especially the northern areas is making a visible difference in the lives of people and infrastructure in the country.

Hafiz Sherali apprised the President of the current projects being undertaken in Pakistan in various sectors with special reference to the establishment of School of High Excellence in Islamabad. He also briefed about the special projects which will be undertaken on the occasion of Diamond Jubilee of His Highness the Aga Khan on 11thJuly, 2017.

President extended an invitation to His Highness the Aga Khan to visit Pakistan during his Diamond Jubilee celebrations.

https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/193997 ... es-of-AKDN
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Revival of social and political activities paved way for democratic culture in Karachi: Sindh Governor

KARACHI: Revival of social and political activities in Karachi has enabled people to exercise their right of expression which itself is prerequisite for a strong democratic culture, said Governor of Sindh, Muhammad Zubair here Thursday.

Talking to a delegation of Aga Khan Shia Imami Ismaili Council of Pakistan led by its President, Hafiz Sher Ali, he said democracy was crucial for the survival and development of any modern day country.

It is democracy that has helped restoration of peace in Karachi and consequent revival of business, economic, cultural and literary activities in the metropolis.

"We can now register that the city is attracting foreign investment that is not only paving way for eliminating poverty and eradication but also improving quality of life of citizens," he said

Sindh Governor appreciated that Aga Khan Foundation and its subsidiaries were providing needed support to many of the government run public welfare schemes.

Services rendered by Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) and its affiliated organizations, in health and education sectors are highly appreciable, said the Governor and acknowledged that updated medical facilities available at Aga Khan Hospital has helped thousands of local patients who otherwise could not go abroad for needed treatment.

The delegation that called on the Governor also included President, AKF - southern region, Amin Muhammad Lakhani and Shams A Essani.

http://www.brecorder.com/2017/07/07/357 ... -governor/
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Hydel station in remote Chitral village opens amid celebration

CHITRAL: The Pawoor village of Yarkhoon valley, situated 200 kilometres from the Chitral district headquarters, started getting electricity supply from a local mini hydropower station after its opening on Sunday amid celebrations by the people for the ‘big day’.

Accompanied by chief executive officer of Aga Khan Foundation Akhtar Iqbal, Swiss Ambassador to Pakistan Thomas Kolly flew to the village to inaugurate the station which was financed by the Swiss Agency for Cooperation and Development (SDC), costing Rs194 million, including Rs10 million community share.

On the occasion, the Swiss envoy expressed his pleasure over the completion of the hydropower project with the active participation of the local community and said that the electricity would bring about behavioural change among people and would lead to development in all sectors.

“I also belong to a mountainous area like Yarkhoon Laspur and know the problems of the people in all sectors of development and feel how the electricity is crucial for their uplift and conservation of environment.”

More...
https://www.dawn.com/news/1403262
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International Literacy Day: New library in Gulshan-e-Noor celebrates joy of reading

The very first revelation to the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family) was a command to read. Thus, from the very beginning, learning and education has held a special place in Islam. For all communities and societies today, learning and education rests on literacy, or, the ability to read and write. The recently-established Gulshan-e-Noor Library and Reading Room in Pakistan aims to enhance the literacy of its visitors by providing them with access to knowledge, a space to hold educational programming, and a team of well-trained staff to facilitate learning.

Educators have agreed that reading to young children ignites curiosity and imagination, and that young readers are more likely to grow into successful adults who can eventually participate in the knowledge societies of today and tomorrow. It is also important to continue to hone one’s literacy skills later in life, and outside of formal educational settings. This helps to foster personal autonomy, and develop creative and critical thinking skills. Attending libraries, reading for pleasure, and participating in reading clubs are all ways to refine one’s literary abilities throughout life.

“Reading provides an opportunity to reflect and plays an important role in character building,” said Shayan Alwani, Chairman of the Local Education Board in Gulshan-e-Noor. “Reading at an early age makes a child ambitious about the future and ignites the hope for better opportunities.”

For many years, there had been no proper library in Gulshan-e-Noor. The new library, developed after consultation with the Jamat, holds 3,000 books on general knowledge, science, religious and educational literature, and other topics, while the reading room can accommodate 30 students for educational programming.

Since opening, the library has hosted programmes such as French classes, mathematics clubs, robotics classes, and a summer camp for the local Jamat.

Adnan Johar and Faizan Ali, both from Gulshan-e-Noor, said the library and its resources will assist in improving their knowledge in their own fields of interest, other academic subjects, and religious education. Adnan also appreciates the peaceful environment the library provides for readers.

In addition to the formation of educated adults, universal literacy helps to develop more rounded individuals, capable of living richer lives, who are better equipped to provide for themselves and their families, and eventually make a contribution to their communities and societies.

“The world has changed significantly and literacy is necessary for progress in life,” said President of the Gulshan Council Saeed Wazir Ali. “It is a reality of the world that without being literate, it will be difficult to achieve success in your life.” He quoted Nelson Mandela, by saying “Literacy is a bridge from misery to hope.”

The new facility at Gulshan-e-Noor is just one example of Libraries and Reading Rooms in Jamatkhanas across the world, encouraging members of the Jamat — young and old alike — to spend more time reading and learning, thus continuing a tradition that has lasted for over 1,400 years.

https://the.ismaili/pakistan/internatio ... oy-reading
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An iconic Pakistani mosque’s plaza is public once more

The 17th-century Wazir Khan Mosque in Lahore is one of Pakistan’s architectural gems, a masterpiece from the Mughal era. But for years the Chowk, or public square, in front of the mosque was neglected.

No more. The Chowk now has been painstakingly restored, thanks in part to the U.S. Department of State’s Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation.

The ornate, arched entrance to the mosque towers above the Chowk in the historic and cultural center of Lahore’s Walled City.

In 2012, the Walled City of Lahore Authority decided to reclaim the neglected Chowk. With guidance from experts at Aga Khan Cultural Service Pakistan, conservationists drew up plans for the restoration.

More...

https://share.america.gov/iconic-pakist ... once-more/
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President lauds Aga Khan’s contribution for uplift of underprivileged communities across world

ISLAMABAD, Sep 27 (APP):President Dr Arif Alvi said Prince Karim Aga Khan’s vision and untiring efforts in promoting global peace, inter-faith dialogue, cultural diversity and pluralism had contributed towards the development and uplift of economically disadvantaged communities across the world.
He said this in a meeting with President of the Aga Khan Council for Pakistan Hafiz Sherali who called on him to deliver a letter from Prince Karim Aga Khan.
In his message, Prince Karim Aga Khan congratulated President Dr Alvi on his election and also highlighted the continued partnership and collaboration between Pakistan and Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) to improve the quality of life of the people.
President Dr Arif Alvi said AKDN in rendering commendable services in the field of education, health and rural development in various parts of the country.
He appreciated the services of Aga Khan Foundation during 2005 Earthquake and said Aga Khan’s grandfather Sir Sultan Shah Aga Khan was a very close companion of Father of the Nation Quaid-e-Azam Ali Jinnah who and played a very important role in Pakistan Movement.
Hafiz Sherali also briefed the president about activities of AKDN in Pakistan.

http://www.app.com.pk/president-lauds-a ... oss-world/
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WCLA holds ‘Meet the Experts’ session at Shahi Hammam

–Experts share methodologies used by them in conservation of heritage site

–Students from different universities attend session; appreciate WCLA’s initiative

LAHORE: A session of “Meet the Experts” was organised by the Walled City of Lahore Authority (WCLA) at the Shahi Hammam on Wednesday.

Experts, who were a part of the Hammam’s conservation process, shared their techniques and methodologies with the participants of the session, which included dozens of students from different universities such as the University of Engineering Technology, National College of Arts, University of Lahore, COMSATS and University of South Asia.

Aga Khan Cultural Services Pakistan (AKCS-P) senior architect Rashid Makhdum informed the attendees about the intricacies of conservation and Shahi Hammam along with the techniques used by them in the site’s conservation. He said that Shahi Hammam was the only building in Pakistan, which represented the Central Asian/Turkish/Irani tradition of public hot baths and was designed to service both the visiting travelers as well as the inhabitants of the city by Hakim Ilmuddin Ansari in the year 1635.

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https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2018/1 ... hi-hammam/
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VIDEO: How Mughal-era royal bath in Pakistan’s Lahore returned to pristine glory

This ancient Shahi Hammam (Royal Bath) is located within the Walled City of Lahore in Pakistan, steps away from a giant entrance called Delhi Gate.

The Hammam, also known as the Wazir Khan Hammam, is a Persian-style bath, which was built in 1635, during the reign of Emperor Shah Jahan.

It was built by chief physician to the Mughal Court, Ilam-ud-din Ansari, who was widely known as Wazir Khan.

The Hammam consisted of three parts – an entrance, a dressing room, hot and warm baths and contained a reception chamber as well as a small prayer room.

https://english.alarabiya.net/en/life-s ... glory.html
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“ANDHERE SE ROSHNI TAK KA SAFAR” REMEMBERING THE FIRST VISIT OF HIS HIGHNESS PRINCE KARIM AGA KHAN TO NORTHERN AREAS

Karachi (Press Release): The Pak Hunza Gilgit Social Welfare Organizations arranged a session “Andhere se Roshni Tak Ka Safar” to commemorate the first visit His Highness Prince Karim Aga Khan to the Northern Areas of Pakistan.

Highness Prince Karim Aga Khan, the present Iman of the Ismaili Muslim sect paid his first visit to the Northern Areas (Chitral, Gilgit, Ghizer and Hunza) in October 1960. During his six days visit, His Highness gave his first Didar to the Ismailies of Northern Jamat. Since then, the Ismilies of Northern areas celebrates this day every year with religious zeal and favor.

Photos and more
http://hunzawelfare.org/andhere-se-rosh ... ern-areas/
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Pakistan gets ready to welcome Rays of Light

The Rays of Light exhibition is set to open in Pakistan shortly, with the Jamat eager to view the acclaimed audio-visual depiction of the work of the Imamat over the last 60 years. This interactive exhibition features over 250 rare photographs along with engaging videos and multimedia clips, all of which provide extensive insights about the Ismaili community’s history and the work of the Aga Khan Development Network, which has always been particularly active in Pakistan. The exhibition highlights the tireless commitment of Mawlana Hazar Imam to encourage development through institutional action that embodies the social conscience of Islam.

“The exhibition is an opportunity for the Jamat and for the wider community within which it lives in Pakistan to learn about the work of the Imamat; the Islamic ethics, the principles and foundations upon which the Imamat and its institutions work. This exhibition demonstrates the work that the Imamat and the Ismaili community does both in Pakistan and around the world,” said Hafiz Sherali, President, Ismaili Council for Pakistan.

As one of the objectives of Rays of Light is to showcase the impact the Ismaili community has had within local communities, the launch of the exhibition will be hosted at the Aga Khan University (AKU), a befitting location given that AKU was a project that was announced as part of Mawlana Hazar Imam's Silver Jubilee. In the 35 years since, it has transformed the landscape of healthcare and medical education in Pakistan and beyond.

The work of the Imamat in Pakistan has encompassed healthcare, education, heritage preservation, rural development and more. Diverse initiatives such as the restoration of the Altit and Baltit forts, the Water and Sanitation Project and Aga Khan Schools have had lasting impact, improving the quality of life for communities across Pakistan.

The exhibition will begin in Karachi and then tour other parts of the country, allowing the Jamat and communities in different regions to experience this unique audio-visual journey.

Photos at:
https://the.ismaili/pakistan/pakistan-g ... rce=Direct
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Video: Rays of Light - An overwhelming experience for the Jamat

A unique international exhibition "Rays of Light" was successfully launched in Pakistan on 23 November 2018. The exhibition is a collection of exclusive images and presentations that gave Jamat a spell bound experience of the work done by Mawlana Hazar Imam for the Jamat and the Ummah over the years.

As wished by Mawlana Hazar Imam, the Jamat from Southern region visited the exhibition with their families. Around 59,000 Jamati members registered for the exhibition in less than a month. Out of which, 6,800 Jamati members have experienced this inspirational exhibition that celebrates the Imamat of Mawlana Hazar Imam and his untiring efforts.

More than 2000 volunteers continue to serve day and night at the exhibition. The International team of Rays of Light visited Pakistan and trained the volunteers about the exhibition. “I can proudly say that our volunteers not only adopted the skills but also performed beyond our expectations”, Saleem Zaveri, National Lead, Rays of Light, Pakistan.

Mawlana Hazar Imam, accompanied by the Noorani family, first inaugurated this groundbreaking photographic and multimedia exhibition in 2008. In July 2018, it was an integral part of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations in Lisbon.

The exhibition will tour other parts of the country, allowing the Jamat and communities in different regions to experience this unique audio-visual journey.

https://the.ismaili/pakistan/rays-light ... rce=Direct
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Sufi night at Fort celebrates works of Bulleh Shah

–WCLA director general says authority trying its best to revive lost culture, promote country’s positive image in world

LAHORE: The Walled City of Lahore Authority (WCLA) on Friday held Sufi night “Bulleh Shah” at the newly-restored Royal Kitchen of the Lahore Fort to pay tribute to the Sufi Punjabi Poet Bulleh Shah, which was attended by hundreds of people from different walks of life.

The Royal Kitchen, built during the reign of Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, was converted into a food godown and stable during the Sikh rule and later into a jail during the British colonial era. It remained a prison after Partition, but in 1988, the cells were removed and the building was abandoned.

With the passage of time, most parts of the historic structure collapsed and the remaining were covered in waist-high shrubs. In 2015, WCLA took up its conservation and was assisted by Aga Khan Trust for Culture Services Pakistan as a technical partner.

After successful restoration, WCLA revived the culture of storytelling at the site and another lost art of folklore and folktales was revived at the Royal Kitchen on Friday.

The participants of the Sufi night were given a guided tour of the illuminated Huzoori Bagh along with a rickshaw ride whereas Sayein Zahoor, Fazal Jutt, Wahab Shah and Ajoka Theatre performed at the historic site.

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https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2018/1 ... lleh-shah/
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Aga Khan Youth and Sports Board Organises 6th Camporee that Brings Together Scouts and Girl Guides from All Over Pakistan

Unity in Diversity – Let’s Embrace Our Differences’ was the theme of the sixth boy scouts and girl guides camporee organised by the Aga Khan Youth and Sports Board, Pakistan. The camp was held at Pakistan Boys Scouts Association headquarters, Sumbal Park, Islamabad. An astounding 255 boy scouts and 286 girl guides from all over the country attended the camp.

The camp was arranged in partnership with the Emergency Department of Aga Khan Agency for Habitat (AKAH), the Ismaili Tariqah and Religious Education Board (ITREB), the Aga Khan Health Board (AKHB), the Aga Khan Education Board (AKEB), the Pakistan Boy Scouts Association, and Accelerate Prosperity - a new Aga Khan Development Network initiative to promote entrepreneurship in rural and semi-rural areas.

“If it doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t change you. The camporee was the most memorable and unique experience of my life,” said Silmi Sultaan, a senior guide from the Southern Region.

The four-day camp, comprising different activities and events, provided a holistic experience to its participants. Some examples of these activities included first aid training, gadget making workshops, a talent show, adventure trails, clay work by National College of Arts alums, photography workshop, and a simulation activity on the Sustainable Development Goals. A campfire night was also held with theater and cultural performances.

The participants also went on a cultural excursion trip in Islamabad. They hiked at the Rawal Lake, visited the Shah Faisal Mosque, the Pakistan Monument, and played a scavenger hunt at the Lok Virsa.

The camporee also marked 71 years of the investiture ceremony of Quaid-e-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah as the first chief scout of Pakistan, as well as the centenary celebration of Rovers. The event was celebrated with a cake-cutting ceremony, speeches, and a cleanliness drive by the Boy Scouts Association of Pakistan.

Several Jamati institutions held an information session for the young participants. The Aga Khan Education Service, Pakistan conducted a career session and the Aga Khan Health Board Pakistan provided tips on stress management. The Emergency Department of AKAH organised a session on disaster preparedness. Rizwan Kareem from ITREBP gave a session on ethics and faith. Accelerate Prosperity presented a session on the topic, ‘What is the Business Model of Your Life?’

The participants garnered a lot of inspiration from the camporee events. Moiz Majeed, a boy scout from Multan, enthused, “Attending the camporee was like a dream come true for me. It was a lot of fun spending time with a completely diverse group and learning about the different forms of survival tips. I also enjoyed learning about clay art, first aid, and gadgets made up of solar energy. I have learned a lot from this camp which will stay fresh in my mind.”

A first-time camporee participant, Ahsun Ranais from the Ishkomen Puniyal region, said, “I arrived at the camp not quite knowing what to expect and it was definitely a new experience for me. I learned a lot from the different sessions. I developed a meaningful relationship with the camp staff and my fellow campers.”

The camporee manifested the unity of the Ismaili Jamat under the banner of community service, which is a salient trait of the community. It is a commendable effort on AKYSB’s part to inculcate the celebration and continuation of service amongst young Jamati members through well-organized events like the camporee.

https://the.ismaili/pakistan/aga-khan-y ... h-camporee
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AGA KHAN CULTURAL SERVICE PAKISTAN: RESTORING HERITAGE

When asked to write a piece on my work at Aga Khan Cultural Service Pakistan (AKCSP), and their conservation work at the Lahore Fort, I was riddled with anxiety. What was there to say that hadn’t already been said before? And that too by individuals whose credentials far outweighed mine. As an intern at Aga Khan Cultural Service Pakistan, my doubts about my own insights had me perturbed. What contribution would my observations constitute in the grander scheme of things?

It didn’t help that during the process of recording a history of interventions at the Fort, I was reminded by my dad of an ancestor of ours whose legendary plundering of the Fort had been immortalized on one of the boards at the entrance gate. For the purpose of maintaining some limited sense of credibility, I won’t name them.

But I digress. For readers who aren’t aware of their work, Aga Khan Cultural Service Pakistan has been at the head of most major conservation efforts within Pakistan. Their work ranges from restoration of the Baltit and Khaplu Forts in Gilgit-Baltistan to renovation of the Shahi Hamam and Wazir Khan Mosque in Lahore. The essence of this conservation is a regeneration of historic sites in ways that spur social, economic and cultural development. It aims to sustainably conserve them through involving the local community. This entails not just a preservation of the monuments but also the crafts and craftways of a historic city. Currently, the Aga Khan Cultural Service Pakistan team is situated at the Lahore Fort, where they plan to conserve various monuments, piece by piece.

More....

https://www.charcoalgravel.com/aga-khan ... servation/
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Farida Imitiaz : Building self-reliance through microfinance

Before 2005, Farida Imitiaz and her husband were struggling to make ends meet for their family, due to extensive medical bills. That year, Farida took out what became the first in a series of loans from the First MicroFinance Bank (FMFB) Ltd Pakistan. Over time, these loans have enabled her to build a beekeeping and honey production business that has significantly increased her household income, and allowed her and her husband to renovate their house and put their children through higher secondary school and college. She is one of 150 women entrepreneurs in her village who have started successful businesses with the help of FMFB loans, and have as a result become more self-reliant.

Video at:

https://www.akdn.org/our-stories/farida ... crofinance
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English Language Enhancement Programme in Pakistan

The English Language Enhancement Programme (ELEP) is an 8-level English Language Diploma Programme that is adopted from Pakistan American Cultural Centre (PACC) to provide English Language teaching to the Jamat.

The Educators certified by PACC are utilized to offer English Language Courses in the Jamat across Pakistan. The programme is delivered through a Foundation course (first three levels) and a Diploma Programme (last five levels). The individuals are allotted respective levels based on their placement test results. The aims at enabling the students, professionals and other members of the Jamat gain access to potential opportunities for their personal, academic and professional growth.

This video is dedicated to the hundreds of volunteers working tirelessly for the programme and also to the Jamat for making ELEP successful.

Video at:

https://the.ismaili/pakistan/english-la ... rce=Direct
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Anila Anjum: From water fetching to higher education

Anila Anjum is a student studying Health Policies and Management Systems at the Aga Khan University in Karachi. Anila grew up in the rugged mountains of Gilgit-Baltistan, where she saw many women like her mother, starting from a young age, spending more than half their lives “walking miles on end” – trekking back and forth through dangerous paths and harsh weather conditions – to fetch clean water for their homes and families. This chore left them no time to complete a proper education.

The AKDN Water and Sanitation Extension Programme (WASEP) provides clean drinking water to 500,000 people and has given safer sanitation to 600 villages in Pakistan. In Gilgit-Baltistan, where the AKDN has been working with communities to help improve their quality of life for over 30 years, the percentage of the population with access to safe water has risen from 5% in 1986 to 72% in 2014.

Today, Anila is able to fulfil her mother’s dream of getting an education: “Without WASEP, I probably would have also been fetching water today.” She tells her story in this video “Water for Life…”

Video at:

https://www.akdn.org/our-stories/anila- ... -education
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Rays of Light, a global exhibition comes to Islamabad

Pakistan’s Federal Minister for National Health Services, Regulation and Coordination, the Honorable Makhdum Aamir Mehmood Kiani, was the chief guest at the inaugural viewing and dinner on 2 April. In his address, the Minister lauded the longstanding partnership between the Government of Pakistan and the Aga Khan Development Network.

Foreign diplomats, business leaders and members of civil society were among the distinguished guests who attended the event.

In his remarks, Iqbal Walji, Chairman, Aga Khan Foundation, Pakistan, spoke about the positive impact of the AKDN’s strong partnership with the government of Pakistan, which shows “important complementarity between the long-term vision of the government of Pakistan and of His Highness. Both acknowledge that meaningful change takes time, patience, and investment.”

Over the past six decades, Mawlana Hazar Imam has transformed the quality of life for millions of people around the world. In the areas of health, education, cultural revitalisation, and economic empowerment, he has worked to inspire excellence and improve living conditions and opportunities in some of the world’s most remote and troubled regions.

Hafiz Sherali, President, Ismaili Council for Pakistan, speaking at the event, highlighted, “Mawlana Hazar Imam’s emphasis on Islam as a thinking, spiritual faith that teaches compassion and tolerance and upholds the dignity of mankind. Rejecting the notion of an inevitable conflict between peoples, Hazar Imam has called this a ‘clash of ignorance’ rather than one of civilisations."

The exhibition, which has been viewed to-date by over 100,000 people around the world, features over 250 powerful visuals in an immersive, multi-media interactive format using technology such as virtual reality and other forms.

Photos at:

https://the.ismaili/pakistan/rays-light ... rce=Direct
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Awaken the Entrepreneur in You

The Aga Khan Economic Planning Board for Pakistan, in collaboration with Accelerate Prosperity Pakistan (APP), an initiative of the Aga Khan Development Network, held an entrepreneurship development seminar for the Southern, Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral regions at the Karachi School of Business and Leadership (KSBL) auditorium.

145 aspiring entrepreneurs took part in the event. The goals of the programme were to spread awareness amongst the youth of the Jamat regarding entrepreneurship, funding opportunities by APP, and emerging business opportunities in Pakistan.

Beginning with a welcome note, the event was taken forward with a series of sessions led by experienced individuals in the field. The first session on emerging business opportunities in Pakistan was led by Mr. Mohammad Ejaz, CEO - Arif Habib REIT Management Trust, who shed light on current and upcoming trends of investment in the country and the increasing importance of entrepreneurship in current times. Following his session, Dr. Shoaib ul Haq, Professor of Digital Economy at KSBL, gave a discourse on the basics of entrepreneurship, the changing trends of technology-based entrepreneurship and creative ways of handling business. The last session was led by Mr. Imran Shams, Country Manager of APP, who explained the workings and benefits of opting for funding and support from Accelerate Prosperity Pakistan. The event was brought to a close with a thank you note to all the speakers and participants.

Throughout the event, the focus remained on the increasing importance of entrepreneurship in Pakistan and emerging trends in the field. There was a particular emphasis on how small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can contribute in improving the economic condition of the country and how they can be assisted by APP’s programs.

One of the participants mentioned, “These kinds of initiatives are necessary for our Jamat to prosper, especially the youth.”

In the words of Mr. Qizil Madad, Chairman PHGSWO, “The programme was a success and I commend the response of the Jamat in such a short time.” Mr. Imran Shams, Country Head of APP, thanked the Aga Khan Economic Planning Board saying, “We thank the AKEPB and other partners for their support in hosting such programmes in Karachi. This shows the outreach and strength of our institutions.”

Photos and more...

https://the.ismaili/pakistan/awaken-entrepreneur-you
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Prime Minister, Imran Khan inaugurates the 400 year old historic “Picture Wall” of Lahore Fort

Lahore, Pakistan, 4 May 2019 - Imran Khan, Prime Minister, Islamic Republic of Pakistan inaugurated the restoration of the 400-year-old “Picture Wall” of Lahore Fort. The Picture Wall is one of the principal features of the Lahore Fort UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The conservation of the 240-foot-long western façade has been carried out by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC), and its country affiliate, the Aga Khan Cultural Service-Pakistan (AKCS-P), in collaboration with the Walled City of Lahore Authority (WCLA).

Speaking on the occasion, Imran Khan, Prime Minister, Islamic Republic of Pakistan emphasised the need for educational institutions to develop archaeology as a subject and the importance of preserving heritage sites in Pakistan. Citing sustainable conservation models from other countries where heritage sites are made economically viable by converting to hotels, the Prime Minister applauded how this model has been successfully implemented by the Aga Khan Development network in the Northern areas of Pakistan.

Together with the Shah Burj Gate (Hathi Pol), the Picture Wall forms the original private entrance to the Fort. The wall is exquisitely decorated with imagery of hunting, battle scenes, angels and demons, human figures, animals, birds, as well as geometric and floral patterns. Built approximately 400 years ago during the Mughal era, it is one of the largest murals in the world. It is embellished in cut glazed tile mosaic work, filigree work, fresco, painted lime plaster and cut brickwork.

Photos and more....

https://www.akdn.org/press-release/prim ... ahore-fort
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July 10, 2019
At Odds with the Impulse: Muslim Humanitarianism and its Exclusions in Northern Pakistan #MUHUM

Drawing on fieldwork undertaken between 2004 and 2013 in Gilgit Town, the multi-sectarian capital of the Gilgit-Baltistan region of northern Pakistan, this brief explores how, even while they work under the aegis of a “avowedly nondenominational” (Miller 2015: 4; see Khan 2010: 66), “non-communal” (AKRSP 1990: 3) Muslim humanitarianism that professes to uplift and protect insaaniyat – or, humanity itself – philanthropic actors can sometimes engage instead in practices that differentiate and exclude prospective beneficiaries on the basis of sect.



Since 1982, Muslim humanitarianism in Gilgit-Baltistan has taken the principle form of the Aga Khan Development Network – or, AKDN – and its multiple agency auspices. Helmed programmatically, politically, and spiritually from its Swiss and later French His Highness Prince Aga Khan – or, the Hazir Imam as he is known to his followers, members of the Nizari Isma’ili Shi’i branch of Islam – the AKDN’s track record in Gilgit-Baltistan is one of incredible initial fortunes, though these gave way to a more diminished project by the mid-2000s.

Through the medium of microfinance and agriculture entities such as the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP), the Aga Khan Education Services’ (AKES) schools and teacher training, and the Aga Khan Health Services’ (AKHS) clinics, hospitals, and health outreach, AKDN implemented a broad-array of infrastructural and community-based development projects. The story of its agencies’ prodigious outputs in Gilgit-Baltistan serves as a commendable and much-touted example of the power of Aga Khan and his Imamat, or community of believers, to harness Ismaili faith and sociality as a means to spark and sustain change, and re-craft local communities in ways that were recognizably more “modern” and “civilized”: literate, economically productive, and socially and politically empowered.

From their outset, AKDN agencies capitalized on and scripted into their humanitarian operations a broad array of the uniquely Ismaili “moral, meanings, obligations and sentiments” (Miller 2015: 34) cherished by its Ismaili beneficiaries, including a sect-specific communitarian ethos. These gestures helped AKDN’s agencies to localize and render familiar the otherwise-global humanitarian principles and ethics imagined to more closely hold local-level development actors’ and beneficiaries’ to their mandates, and better actualize Gilgit-Baltistan’s Ismailis’ simultaneously-“spiritual and material development” (Miller 2015: 34).

In the interests of ensuring equity and peace between Ismailis, Shias, and Sunnis, and fulfilling the AKDN’s secular and pluralistic mandate, its operational boundaries were early on expanded to include non-Ismailis as development partners.

However, informed as its agencies were first with Ismaili and only then more “generally Islamic concepts” (Miller 2015: 4), AKDN’s humanitarianism was experienced by enrolled and prospective beneficiaries as “inseparably entwined with [Ismailis’] spiritual and moral aspirations” (Ibid), and “explicitly” rather than implicitly religious (see Miller 2015: 4). Rather than acknowledge the distinctively Ismaili “moral logics” inherent to its interventions, or the “real and potential exclusions” these and the singularly “special relationship between Isma’ilis and the AKDN” (Miller 2015: 4-5) gave rise, many AKDN employees, the majority of whom were Ismailis, affirmed “pluralism [as] a central pillar of AKDN’s ethical framework” (AKDN 2014a in Mostowlansky 2016: 233).

In Gilgit-Baltistan, though, pluralism was not necessarily reflected by the social and spatial distribution of AKDN agencies’ initiatives, with Ismaili communities’ boundaries repeated in and reflected by, interventions’ contouring and emplacement (Manetta and Steinberg n.d.: 21; World Bank 2002, Wood 2006). Nor was pluralism always reflected by the content and tenor of its inter-sectarian humanitarian engagements. Sunnis especially were rarely included as administrators and decision-makers, and AKDN’s programmatic consultations with Sunni and Shia Village Organization (VO) members were infrequent, when Shia and especially Sunni VOs existed at all. External evaluations found AKDN mobilization drives focused less on Shia and Sunni communities, meaning their specific and sometimes uniquely different development needs and ambitions often went unaddressed (see McGuinness et al, 2010).

Agencies’ employees explained Shias and Sunnis’ comparatively diminished presence as being because they were “poorly receptive” and even “antagonistic” to AKDN’s developmentalist and humanitarian outreach. Having witnessed such realities during my employment with AKRSP in 1998, I knew these claims held true, but only to a degree. Indeed, in my subsequent research, AKDN’s assertions were contested by the majority of my Sunni and Shia interlocutors, who self-described as “eager” and even “desperate” for the chance to participate in and avail themselves of the benefits of, AKDN interventions, and contradicted by Sunnis and Shias’ community-based efforts to petition its agencies for coverage, some of which I had been party to.

My ethnography found Sunnis and Shias’ estrangements not simply yielded by community-side “suspicion”, “rejection” (Settle 2012: 392), or “hostility”. Nor were they only the result of organizational “blind spots” (2014), as Salmaan Keshavjee qualifies the Aga Khan Foundation’s operational oversights and community-level inattentions in other parts of Central Asia.

Sunni and Shia interlocutors described their under-inclusion or bypassing by AKDN agencies as evidence, too, of something more deliberate: of ‘biases’ (see Settle 2012: 394) and neglect (see Settle 2010: 25) that, when put into practice and exchange, were at-distinct odds with AKDN’s professed humanitarian impulse. Their claims were corroborated by the fact that, in my interviews with them, a number of AKDN personnel’s initial declarations that their work was fuelled by an apolitical, secular, and non-sectarian altruism (Settle 2010: 23, 32) gave way to sectarian, political, and sometimes-wholly prejudicial assessments of the Shia and Sunni ‘others’ in their midst, and, as my brief explores, Sunnis perhaps most of all (see Ali and Akhunzada 2015: 15, Hunzai 2013: 8).

The distance between Sunnis and Ismailis was attributed as much to cultural and ethnic as religious differences, with Sunnis sharing far less Islamic doctrinal interpretation, systems of leadership, and ritual practices in common with Ismailis than Shias. Moreover, AKDN personnel worked, then as now, against the backdrop of internecine discord and violence. While Shia-Sunnis enmities have been significantly greater, many Ismailis described also experiencing discrimination and sometimes violence, which informed some of their concerns for and less laudatory opinions about Sunnis, even if Shias could be equivalently responsible for such acts. My brief seeks not to negate AKDN agencies’ innumerable strengths and achievements, but unsettle their claims concerning the persons theorized as being their prospective beneficiaries, yet who appeared infrequently if at all as part of their operations.

Image by lukexmartin (flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Gilgit Medical Center

By way of a focus on the Aga Khan Health Services, my brief offers vignettes of the ways ‘at-odds’ impulses were structurally embedded, affective, and quotidian; swept into humanitarian exchanges, and helping to explain agencies’ results. In discussing the ways that sectarianism could be imbricated with AKHS’s on-the-ground workings, I foreground the ways that many Sunnis, on whom the majority of my research since 2004 has focused, came to be estranged from the low-to medium-cost Gilgit Medical Center, the 50-bed facility that until 2014 served as AKHS’s regional headquarters and its flagship hospital. My work at the hospital was the result of a larger ethnographic project, which explored how Shia‐Sunni hostilities contributed to Sunnis’ marginalization from Gilgit Town’s government hospitals, located as they were in Shia enclaves, and led to the worsening of their already-high morbidity and mortality ratios (see Varley 2010, 2016). Unable to safely access public sector facilities during Shia-Sunni strife, the Gilgit Medical Center was a clinically more effective and imaginably more ‘neutral alternative’.

By contrast to its proponents’ claims that the hospital was universally accessible, and posted notifications at the facility that “political talk” was proscribed, a considerable number of Sunni interlocutors’ relayed how, in the course of seeking and receiving care, they felt they had been discriminated against by Ismaili staff, as it took the form of comments intended to earmark Sunnis’ less desirable differences from Ismailis, and not-always subtle forms of maltreatment meted out by Ismaili patients and attendants; with some abuses witnessed but not also intervened upon by attending staff. In sharing the stories of their time at the hospital, maternity patients spoke of the ways that the care they had received often compared unfavorably against the attention shown to Ismailis; in so doing, Sunnis confirmed the power of poor handling, perceived or actual, to drive them away from the hospital and its services. Sunnis’ sometimes-strident or disruptive efforts to protest or pushback against what they felt were the prejudicial conditions of care risked being recast as evidence of their “difficult nature”. (To this end, many Sunni interlocutors admitted that, worried for the possibility of mistreatment, they could be over-reactive, defensive, and unduly provocative.) One nurse relayed how, “Sunnis are more closed-minded, and they are ‘pushier’. They ask a lot of questions and interfere.”

In ways that inadvertently corroborated Sunnis’ claims of differential treatment, a number of AKHS interlocutors shared their concerns for the “challenges” posed by Sunni patients on the one hand, and the Sunni community’s “incapacity” and “extremism” on the other.

Common to many accounts were assertions that Sunnis were inherently “backwards”. In my work in the Outpatient Ward, poorer women’s bodily condition, and impaired obstetric health especially, were often conveyed as being metaphoric for the Sunni body politic overall. One administrator went further; proposing that Sunnis’ “incivility” and “wickedness” could be chalked up to “genetic” causes and was, therefore, unmanageable and inescapable. They argued that these more ‘intractable’ qualities confirmed Sunnis’ poor suitability both as development partners and recipients of its largesse, insofar as it had been theoretically extended to them. In advancing these claims, many personnel raised the specter of ‘tribal violence’ in neighbouring Diamer District and Khyber-Pakthunkhwa Province, and the sometimes spectacular acts of violence Sunni militants in these areas had inflicted, including the mass killings in 2011 and 2012 of Shias traveling south to Islamabad. When pressed, some eventually acknowledged that their broad-brush approaches invoked extremisms that had little to no bearing on the behaviour of Sunni patients coming from within Gilgit Town, the vast majority of whom shared Ismailis’ concerns for the dangers posed by tribalism and fanaticism in other regions of Gilgit-Baltistan, or themselves had fled radicalism and strife in those districts, and were socially and economically more alike the hospital’s Ismaili employees and patients than different.

When asked why Sunnis comprised the smallest percentage of the hospital’s in‐town patients, a number of employees denied the possibility that sectarianism at the facility contributed to Sunni patients’ choosing other hospitals. Instead, Sunnis’ under‐use of the hospital was attributed to their “lack of awareness” about its services. However, Sunni interlocutors were universally knowledgeable about the Gilgit Medical Center, and many expressed a deep appreciation for its healthcare providers’ expertise, and safer, higher quality treatments they provided. Personnel also referred to Sunnis’ “religious zealotry”, and their animosities for Ismailis and the Aga Khan in particular, about which they were not far wrong. However, theirs was a disdain expressed less for Ismailis’ religious beliefs and practices than the instrumentalization of AKDN agencies for “political” rather than only philanthropic purposes, and their discontent with an Ismaili-identified humanitarianism that professed care for all, yet under-engaged Sunnis, who were already poorly supported at governmental and non-governmental levels. AKHS’s operations across Gilgit-Baltistan, for instance, served a predominantly Ismaili and Shia patient base.

In making sense of their marginalization, Sunni interlocutors hypothesized that AKDN and its agents were able to preserve humanitarianism’s symbolic capital and material largesse for ‘their own’, and, in so doing, facilitate Ismailis’ collective uplift in socio-economic and political terms all. They pointed out how the “advancement” and “progress” engendered by nearly forty years of concentrated humanitarianism yielded definitively political advantages and capital.

A more educated, prosperous, and healthier Ismaili body politic was not only better positioned to emplace its agents and advocates in more political terrain, including in the region’s public sector. It was also better equipped to pursue and defend its own interests. Humanitarian exclusions were also broadly understood – not only by Sunnis, but also a number of Shia and Ismaili interlocutors – as enabling Ismailis to distinguish themselves from and compete against, their Sunni and Shia “sister communities”, and gain leverage over Gilgit-Baltistan’s key resources. With their efforts concentrated in Ismaili communities, AKDN agencies achieved a dramatic but also selective uplift that was left largely unchallenged by its donors, and significant upticks in its beneficiaries’ social welfare and health indicators. The AKHS’s successes in Ismaili communities, though, have yielded health disparities and, by relation, resentments of such a magnitude that many interlocutors hypothesized they may have helped fuel inter-sectarian enmities and conflict.

In reporting to donors and stakeholders, AKDN agencies typically emphasized either the success of their pluralistic efforts, or, in explaining and legitimating uneven inclusion, relied on explanations that foregrounded Sunnis and Shias’ disinterest or intransigence. In such tellings, it was not that that Sunnis and Shias were discouraged or denied, but, rather, that they themselves rejected the development equation. No matter the rhetoric, disconnect between what AKDN’s agencies reported, and what the communities within their operational reach experienced, was not entirely unnoticed. Several external evaluations, including two by the World Bank (1995, 2002; McGuinness et al, 2010; see also Miller 2015), confirmed the challenges AKDN faced initially establishing traction with more conservative Sunni and Shia communities. Conversely, they also established Shias and Sunnis’ willingness and ability to join interventions, and, in so doing, generated evidences that destabilized AKDN narratives and helped fill in their gaps.


Conclusion

Even though AKDN agencies such as AKHS were configured and publicly relayed as projects intended for and available to all, a substantial number of Sunni interlocutors characterized their operations as sources and mechanisms of tacit sectarian distancing and exclusion. As I found, not all exclusions were achieved through inequitable distributions or denials; at the Gilgit Medical Center, they were made possible, too, through the affective quality of care. Rather than sectarian preferences and prejudices being separable from the humanitarian project, my interlocutors revealed them as entangled with the formulation and execution of humanitarianism itself, with Sunnis’ marginalization revealing AKDN as an undeniably utopic but also sect-specific visioning of regional development and community welfare.

It wasn’t entirely surprising, then, that so many Sunni interlocutors experienced AKDN agencies’ day-to-day operations and outreach to non-Ismailis in particular, as politically fraught and morally bifurcated; marked by the tension between the universalizing and inclusive nature of its humanitarian mandate, and the particularizing and exclusionary goals of the persons tasked with seeing it through. For them, humanitarianism emerged as internally animated by inconsistencies in its agents’ pursuit of orthodoxy and orthopraxy – or, right belief versus right practice (Goguen and Bolten 2017) – such as it took the form of discrepancies between humanitarian actors’ professed goal to support all irrespective of sect, and their sometimes more restrained or limited commitment to fulfill the same.

Through ethnography that attends to those at humanitarianism’s distal edges, we gain insights into the ways that interventions can be experienced not as uniformly benevolent, but prejudicial and neglectful. Such a focus helps us better apprehend humanitarianism’s inconsistencies, insofar as on-the-ground practices can deviate from institutional ethics, and its incoherence from the perspective of those who believe in pluralistic mandates, but find themselves rebuffed or sidelined because of their difference. Nested within ostensibly ethical humanitarian projects, other kinds of impulses may be at-work; in exploring them, anthropologists encounter humanitarianism’ alter ego, such as it can consist of less humane and less reported – or, easily reportable – engagements. In using ethnography to counter and unsettle organizational scripts, we bring light to humanitarianism’s shadowside, insofar as every humanitarian agency possesses one, and as it is experienced by the persons technically within its reach, yet who remain worlds away from its benefits.


References

AKRSP. (1990). The Aga Khan Rural Support Programme: Briefing Notes. Gilgit, Northern Areas: 30 pages.

Ali, Syed Waqas and Taqi Akhunzada. (2015). Unheard voices: engaging youth of Gilgit-Baltistan. London, UK: Conciliation Resources, 24 pages.

Goguen, Adam and Catherin Bolten. (2017). “Ebola Through a Glass, Darkly: Ways of Knowing the State and Each Other.” Anthropological Quarterly, 90 (2): 429-456.

Hunzai, Izhar. (2013). Conflict Dynamics in Gilgit-Baltistan. Washington, D.C.: United States Institute of Peace Special Report, 16 pages.

Keshavjee, Salmaan. (2014). Blind Spot: How Neoliberalism Infiltrated Global Health. Berkeley, California: University of California Press.

Khan, Feisel. (2010). “The limits of success? NGOs, microfinance and economic development in Pakistan’s Northern Areas.” Journal of Asian Public Policy, 3 (1): 53-70.

Manetta, Emily and Jonah Steinberg. (n.d.) “Localizing modernity: The Aga Khan Foundation and the global dissemination of the Village Organization.” University of Vermont, 40 pages: http://www.uvm.edu/~emanetta/LocalizingModernity.pdf; accessed April 3, 2019.

McGuinness, Elizabeth and Jennifer Mandel, Holly Korda, Ayesha Tayyab. (2010). Assessment of Health Microinsurance Outcomes in the Northern Areas, Pakistan – Baseline Report. IRIS Financial Services Assessment Project, University of Maryland: http://www.fsassessment.umd.edu/.

Miller, Katherine J. (2015). A Spiritual Development: Islam, Volunteerism and International Development in the Hunza Valley, Northern Pakistan. University of California, San Diego: PhD Thesis, 206 pages.

Mostowlansky, Till. (2016). “Humanitarianism Across Mountain Valleys: ‘Shia Aid’ and Development Encounters in Northern Pakistan and Eastern Tajikistan.” Mapping Transition in the Pamirs: Advances in Asian Human-Environmental Research. (Editors: H. Kreutzmann and T. Watanabe.) Switzerland: Springer International Publishing, pp. 229-244.

Settle, Antonia. (2010). Contested Aims, Contested Strategies: New Development Paradigm through the lens of the AKRSP. Islamabad, Pakistan: Sustainable Development Policy Institute, 45 pages.

(2012). “The new development paradigm through the lens of the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme: legitimacy, accountability and the political sphere.” Community Development Journal, 47 (3): 386–404.

Varley, Emma. (2010). “Targeted doctors, missing patients: Obstetric health services and sectarian conflict in Northern Pakistan.” Social Science & Medicine, 70: 61-70.

(2016). “Abandonments, Solidarities and Logics of Care: Hospitals as Sites of Sectarian Conflict in Gilgit-Baltistan.” Special Issue “The Clinic in Crisis”: Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry, 40 (2): 159-180.

Wood, Geof. (2006). “Introduction: The Mutuality of Initiative.” Valleys in Transition: Twenty Years of AKRSP’s Experience in Northern Pakistan. (Editors: G. Wood, A. Malik and S. Sagheer.) Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

World Bank. (1995). Report No. 15157 – PAK Pakistan The Aga Khan Rural Support Program: A Third Evaluation. Washington, D.C.: World Bank Operations Evaluation Department, http://documents.banquemondiale.org/cur ... i0page.txt; accessed April 10, 2019.

(2002). The Next Ascent: An Evaluation of the Aga Khan Rural Support Program. Washington, D.C.: World Bank Operations Evaluation Department.

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Emma Varley

Emma Varley is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Brandon University. Her medical anthropological and ethnographic research explores the interconnections between women's health, development and sectarian conflict in the Gilgit-Baltistan region of northern Pakistan, with particular attention paid to the cultural, ethical, and experiential texture of medicine, and the political etiologies underlying women’s health outcomes during times of instability and crisis.
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AKPBS, NDRMF ink deal

ISLAMABAD: National Disaster Risk Management Fund (NDRMF) signed Grant Implementation Agreement with a joint venture of Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) Pakistan and Aga Khan Planning and Building Services (AKPBS), for providing grant financing up to Rs579.621 million for the project titled “Promoting Integrated Mountain Safety in Northern Pakistan (PIMSNP)”.

NDRMF Programme and Operation Group General Manager Khurram Khaliq Khan and Civil Society & Habitat Rural Development Director Irshad Khan Abbasi signed the contract designed to protect and enhance resilience of communities vulnerable to the negative impacts of multiple natural hazards.

The agreed project cost is Rs834.606 million, with NDRMF share of 70% (amounting to Rs579.621 million) and AKF share of 30% (amounting to Rs254.985 million).

https://tribune.com.pk/story/2020788/1- ... 25c8c5fc8d
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Lahore Fort Picture Wall Prototype Project (Pakistan)

The Picture Wall at Lahore Fort, with all its extensive embellishments with tile mosaic and fresco panels, brick imitation and filigree work, represents the exceptional craftsmanship of the Mughal period. In 1981, Lahore Fort was therefore inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The tile mosaics and frescoes have been severely damaged by disruptions to the original water drainage system and by exposure of the exterior facade to extreme weather conditions.

by Wajahat Ali (Manager Lahore Fort Conservation Project) and Zeina Naseer (Conservation Chemist, Picture Wall Project)

Since September 2015, the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC)/Aga Khan Cultural Service Pakistan (AKCSP) has been in partnership with the Government of Punjab’s Walled City of Lahore Authority (WCLA) for the documentation/conservation of the Picture Wall. The completion of documentation work led to the selection of an 11m wide and 16m high segment of the western wall for prototype restoration. This prototype project was mainly funded within the context of the Cultural Preservation Programme of the Federal Foreign Office.

Images and more....

https://www.culthernews.de/lahore-fort- ... -pakistan/
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