Sixth March: A Historic Day in Chitral I had taken leave from my studies at Karachi University and had arrived in Mogh, a hamlet in the Garamchashma valley in Chitral on March 4, 1976; it turned out to be my birthday. A large number of people representing all households of the many villages in the valley had been busy for days in widening the pedestrian track from Garamchashma polo ground to Ziyarat (a congregational space in memory of Nasir Khusraw, an eleventh century Muslim scholar, philosopher, poet and theologian revered by the Ismaili Muslims in Chitral and elsewhere in Central Asia), building a bridge over the Parabeg River connecting the road directly with the place of congregation, levelling the ground for a large number of people of both genders and of all ages, and preparing the stage for the centuries awaited guest to bless them. I did my bit as a young volunteer. With no electricity, it was very dark at 2:00 am in the early hours of March 6, 1976 when people began to arrive at Ziyarat for the occasion which none of them had ever experienced before. Whichever direction one turned his eyes to in the pitch dark morning, one could see the numerous kerosene lanterns, which every household was carrying to illuminate the winding descending pathways from mountain villages to the congregation place in the deep valley at the riverbank. It appeared as if all the stars from the sky were descending to earth to pay their homage. It was a beautiful sunny day of early spring, but cold because the snow had not melted fully. People with their meagre warm clothing cared less about the cold, but were immersed in their devotional reflection. At around 11:00 am, the sound of an army helicopter was heard with powerful reverberation due to the surrounding majestic pillars of the Hindukush Mountains and within minutes it appeared on the eastern horizon. Soon the entire congregation began to recite in one voice the Salawat, the Qur’anic invocation reserved in Muslim belief only for Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and his progeny and continued until the Imam of the Ismaili Muslims, His Highness Prince Karim Aga Khan accompanied by the then Prime Minister of Pakistan, Zufiqar Ali Bhutto took their seats on the stage. This historic visit was short with Ismaili congregations at Garamchashma in Lower Chitral and a bigger congregation at Mastuj in Upper Chitral. It was historic because never before had Ismailis in this part of the world been in the presence of their Imam. It had been a long wait and now eventually the dream had finally come true for the Imam’s followers. The Chitrali Ismailis believed that their Imam, the progeny of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), one day would set his feet on the soil of their region and which would bring abundance of blessings, a belief shared by many other Muslims who revere the Ahl-al-bayt, the household of the Prophet (peace be upon him). Let me briefly describe the conditions in which Chitralis lived prior 1976. Chitral Prior to 1976 Since the inception of Pakistan in 1947 and Chitral State’s joining the federation in 1948, Chitral remained an isolated and impoverished part of the country’s Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP). In political terms, no high profile government functionary either at the provincial or federal level had ever paid a visit to the region. Geographically, it always remained cut off from the rest of the country for six months in a year due to heavy snow on the Lawary Pass, avalanches taking several precious human lives every year. Internally, in the absence of road links, people had to walk for days on pony tracks from their far flung villages to Chitral town to buy the daily necessities for survival. Economically, people had just survived a famine lasting through the years 1969 to 1971. I can still recall the arrival of the grain which became known to the local population at that time as amricayi, referring to the almost rotten corn stock that had become available to them in quantities, barely enough to survive on. The severity of food shortage was such that a man from a far flung village after waiting several days in Chitral town and failing to buy a few kilograms of barley, corn, wheat, rice or any kind of pulses on which his family could survive, took his life by throwing himself into the freezing Chitral River. I, still remember as a high school student in Chitral town, spending many lunch breaks, after school and on Sundays writing applications for the numerous illiterate villagers to get approval from the Deputy Commissioner’s and Assistant Commissioner’s offices to purchase grain and acquiring the approved amount of grain from the tahsildar, a government functionary responsible at the time for the grain storehouse. As a boarder at the Ismailia Hostel, (which was destroyed by a politically motivated mob in July 1982) I was one of the privileged students to have been provided with accommodation and food. Educationally, by 1976 a few middle schools located in each tahsil (an administrative unit like a ward or county within a district) had been upgraded to high school (grade ten) but practically it was the high school Chitral town from where most grade ten students graduated. However, the new government, first popularly elected since the creation of Pakistan, had expanded primary education and upgraded some to higher levels and commissioned the Chitral college (grade twelve at that time) now Degree College. Furthermore, the government, for the first time, had established scholarships for students to study in the big urban cities of Pakistan. Female education had yet to be recognized as a priority. In the area of health, apart from the two hospitals, one in Drosh and the other in Chitral town, and a few dispensaries at the tehsil level, there was hardly any government health facility to my recollection. A vast majority of the population relied on traditional herbal medicines to cure their diseases. Many would seek relief from pain and health recovery in prayers and amulets. One of the consequences of lack of health care facilities was opium addiction of a large number of people who first used it as a pain reliever and then got addicted to it with devastating results for their families; selling off properties to meet the expenses of addiction. Chitral Today Apart from the spiritual significance for the Ismaili Muslims in Chitral, the visit of the Imam accompanied by the Prime Minister was symbolic in the sense that it heralded the Ismaili Imamat institutions, which were yet to come to the region, and which would work with those of the government departments to change the deplorable conditions of Chitral as described earlier. This unfolded in many areas of development. Five years following the visit, the Aga Khan Rural Support Program (AKRSP) was launched in the region, which since then has provided employment opportunities to hundreds of people, men and women, constructed numerous link roads, built irrigation channels bringing vast areas of barren lands with no water at all and lands with insufficient water supply into productive cultivable use, and planting millions of fruit trees and trees for reforestation halting the devastating effect of the deforestation caused by the lucrative profiteers, the loggers legally and illegally. Over the years it has supported numerous villages in building hydro power projects to provide electricity to their houses, and most importantly it has enabled the communities to build their organizational capacity through the development of social organizations, thus unleashing their creative energies to seek solutions to their communities’ problems. Chitral is greener today than one could have imagined in 1976, it is producing marketable products such as fruits and potatoes in fairly large quantities, trading them not only within Chitral, but also in Pakistan’s urban centres. AKRSP’s contribution in this regard has been pioneering. From 1960s to early 1980s, while government resources were directed towards expansion of education for boys, the Aga Khan Education Service (AKES) focused on girls’ education. At the time when the AKES opened its first school for girls in Chitral in early 1980s, there was barely any female literacy and today Chitral is one of the highest female literacy districts in NWFP due to the significant contribution of AKES schools. Currently, it is running 86 schools from grade one to ten with over 6000 students, the largest non-governmental education provider in the district. As a further step, the AKES has started building two high profile higher secondary schools (grade 12) in upper and lower Chitral. The Professional Development Centre in Chitral town, the construction of which is also underway is another significant institutional development to improve the quality of education in Chitral. Over the years, AKES has trained hundreds of its own and of government teachers through its Field-Based Teacher Development Program, improved their language skills through its language Enhancement programs (LEAP and SCIP) and has built many quality school buildings through its self-help school construction program. In all its education endeavours, the AKES has involved the local communities drawing on their strength and improving their capacity to manage their community-based schools. With no institutional presence in Chitral in 1976, the Aga Khan Health Service has now a network of health centres in far flung villages providing prenatal and postnatal child care. It has established two high quality health facilities with trained doctors, nurses, technicians and modern equipment in purpose built, best quality buildings in lower and upper Chitral. In addition to its numerous primary health care programs, the eradication of centuries old health problem, the goitre, a swelling of the thyroid gland in the neck due to iodine deficiency, is a remarkable achievement. The Aga Khan Planning and Building Service’s achievements in improving the living conditions through innovative and low cost strategies are of no less significance. What I have summarized here is a very brief allusion to the enormous development activities that followed the visit of 1976 to improve the quality of life of Chitralis. It has been possible through the collaborative efforts of the institutions of the Ismaili Imamat, the government departments and the international development agencies. The following quotation from the Aga Khan Development Network website captures the purposes and functions of institutional building in the global context. “In consonance with this vision of Islam and their tradition of service to humanity, wherever Ismailis live, they have elaborated a well-defined institutional framework to carry out social, economic and cultural activities. Under the Aga Khan’s leadership, this framework has expanded and evolved into the Aga Khan Development Network, a group of institutions working to improve living conditions and opportunities in specific regions of the developing world. In every country, these institutions work for the common good of all citizens regardless of their origin or religion. Their individual mandates range from architecture, education and health to the promotion of private sector enterprise, the enhancement of non-government organizations and rural development.” Sixth March is truly a day of immense significance in the history of Chitral and must be celebrated with reflection and gratitude. Dr. Mir Baiz Khan Toronto, Canada (416) 494 4243